


Road Rage

by WinchesterWarrenSon



Series: Motorbikes and Sailboats [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Ableism, Abusive Relationships, Asexual Character, Autistic Dipper Pines, Canon Divergence - Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future, Canon Divergence - Weirdmageddon, Domestic Violence, Family Drama, M/M, R-Word Usage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-23 09:37:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 30,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6112468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinchesterWarrenSon/pseuds/WinchesterWarrenSon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to "Bike Race." Jimmy Snakes is back in town, violating the rules of his and Dipper's deal. There are severe consequences to breaking demon deals, and the Pines family will ultimately pay the biggest price. But this time around, they have Great-Uncle Ford to protect the kids and Stanley. Starts in between "The Stanchurian Candidate" and "The Last Mabelcorn." Contains spoilers for the finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

With everything involving Gideon and zombies and the portal, Stan hadn’t really given Jimmy a second thought once Dipper’s leg had healed up fully. There was no reason to think about old flames when they weren’t around and he had a brother to bring back from the great beyond or whatever.

And now Ford was back. He wanted him gone by the time summer ended, but Ford was back. Stan had finally succeeded at what he had been working on for the last 30 years….

So why did he feel so empty still?

The phone rang, and Stan answered it.

“Pines’ residence.”

“Stan?”

Stan tensed a little bit.

“Hey. What’s up?”

Dipper and Mabel were just a few feet from him, eating their dinner. Ford had yet to come up from downstairs.

“I know I’m not supposed to come around, and I really wouldn’t be if it wasn’t important. Mephistopheles does not play around when it comes to punishment. I need to talk to you.”

“Can you do it over the phone?” Stan asked.

“If that’ll make you feel better, but it’s really not safe enough.”

Stan frowned. This really was important.

“Okay, I’ll meet you there.”

“Biker bar?”

“Yeah.”

“All right. This has to stay between us, that we met. If word gets to Mephistopheles that I violated my deal with your nephew….”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll handle it.”

“See you in thirty.”

“Yeah. Bye.”

Stan then hung up.

“Uh, kids? Your grunkle’s gotta step out for a bit, but I’ll be right back. Mabel, if Ford doesn’t come up for food within the hour, feel free to make as much noise as you want until he does.”

“All right, Grunkle Stan!” Mabel said, looking excited at the prospect of being allowed to make as much noise as she wanted.

Stan headed into town on foot, then arrived at the biker bar.

He got a few weird looks as he entered, but he saw Jimmy way in the back of the bar. He walked straight to him, then sat across from him in the booth.

“All right, spill,” Stan said.

“There’s murmur among all the demons and our higher-ups that the Apocalypse is approaching ahead of schedule. Everyone’s freaked out, and when I overheard Mephistopheles and Lucifer talking about how it would start here in Gravity Falls….”

Stan’s eyes widened.

“Wait, what? The apocalypse? For real?”

Stan has always been a bit paranoid about having enough food, and he covered up that paranoia by saying he was preparing for the Apocalypse. It made people think he was weird instead of sad and pathetic. But he never thought it would actually happen.

“I don’t know the details, or why it’s happening, but I just … I had to warn you,” Jimmy said. “I - I know I’ve never been a good man. And I know I haven’t always treated you right. But I -”

“I know. I get it,” Stan said, not really wanting to hear Jimmy say it. Not anymore. “I know you love me and all that jazz. And … part of me still loves you, too. And … thanks for telling me… . And thanks for risking getting into trouble to tell me….”

Stan felt awkward. He felt like he was 19 again and meeting Jimmy for the first time all over again. A bunch of nerves banded together and a little intimidated and scared, but also wanting to be cool about it.

It spilled out of his mouth before he could stop it.

“Why did you hurt Dipper?”

Jimmy sighed, seeming to have expected this question.

“I … I wasn’t really thinking straight. I had a deadline, and when he offered the deal, it sounded like it would be a lot faster to make him switch places with me than it would be to switch with you.”

“But you really were going to turn me or Dipper into some kind of evil demon henchman.”

“… Yeah. I was.”

“Okay then.”

Stan then got up.

“I’d say see you around, but you probably shouldn’t ever come around again,” Stan said.

“Yeah. Right. Good bye.”

Stan didn’t tell him goodbye. Not really. He walked out of the bar and walked all the way home.

When he got home, he slumped against the door.

He could hear Dipper and Mabel’s footsteps coming towards him, but he couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“Grunkle Stan, how’d your outing g-? Grunkle Stan?” Dipper said.

Stan took his glasses off and covered his eyes, his shoulders shaking.

“Grunkle Stan, are you crying? What happened?” Mabel asked.

Heavier steps indicated Ford had followed them.

“Stanley?”

“Just go away!” Stan snapped. “I’m fine, I just - I need some time alone!”

Dipper and Mabel shrunk back, but the two looked at each other and nodded. Ford noticed the exchange, but didn’t know what to make of it. Ultimately, he didn’t pay it much mind.

“Are you okay? Did something - ?” Ford asked.

“Grunkle Stan, if you really want to be alone, that’s fine, but we haven’t seen you this upset since Jimmy Snakes was around,” Dipper said.

Ford had absolutely no idea what Dipper was talking about, but something seemed to click in Dipper’s brain.

“Jimmy’s not back, is he?” Mabel said, starting to look scared.

“He better not be, we had a deal!” Dipper said.

Stan wiped his face and put his glasses back on and stood up.

“That’s enough from you two! If you finished your dinner, go up to bed!”

“Grunkle Stan, if Jimmy’s back, you have to tell us! I’ll get Mephistopheles to - !”

“You’ve met Mephistopheles!?” Ford said.

“You’re not talking to anybody about what Jimmy may or may not be up to! You’re staying far away from all this supernatural nonsense and going to bed, young man!”

“But Grunkle Stan - !”

Stan then actually physically lifted Dipper off the ground and carried him up the stairs. Mabel followed after, a worried look on her face. Dipper sounded like he was starting to pitch a fit. Ford stared up the stairs, watching them go.

Just who was Jimmy Snakes, what did Mephistopheles have to do with this, and what had happened while he was not here?


	2. Chapter 2

Ford was still standing at the bottom of the stairs when Stanley came back from putting the children to bed. Ford could faintly hear Dipper continuing his fit. The behavior was so unlike Dipper that Ford couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong.

“Stanley, what’s going on? Why’re Mabel and Dipper upset? Who’s Jimmy Snakes? And what does Mephistopheles, seeker and jailer of the damned, have to do with any of this?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Stan snapped, pushing past Ford and going into the kitchen.

Ford followed him there. Stanley was messing with a cabinet that was well beyond the children’s reach. He was pulling out liquor as Ford started talking.

“Stanley, please. Mephistopheles himself isn’t bad or evil, but anyone who has willingly had contact with him is bad news. Mephistopheles only makes deals and takes the souls of evil people, and I just want to know if you’re all oka-!”

“ _Just shut up and leave me alone_!” 

Ford was used to Stan being angry, but he was quite taken aback by the tears rolling down his twin’s face.

Ford had before seen Stan angry and balling fists and punching people’s faces, but he had never seen Stan have a deathly grip on an alcohol bottle and a face that was begging to be just left alone in misery.

“I don’t want to hear your nerd babble about your supernatural magic crap! Just go away! I don’t care what you do, but go away!”

Ford felt unsure and lost. He didn’t know what was happening and didn’t know what to do. As a result, he found himself fulfilling Stan’s request. He left him alone in the kitchen with his bottle of rum.

With the children in bed and the rift finally contained in the snow globe, Ford wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. Well, he knew what he’d be doing if Stanley hadn’t come home so upset. But now he couldn’t bring himself to focus or concentrate.

Ford tried to think of anything in his life experience that would’ve taught him what to do in this kind of situation. But monster fighting, college, dimension-hopping, thesis work, Gravity Falls, and Glass Shard Beach hadn’t ever really had an equivalent for “twin brother in tears and turning to alcohol to deal with problems he won’t talk about.” Fiddleford had been Ford’s only real friend in the last 40 years. The only one he had been close enough to … potentially have experiences like this with. But Fiddleford had hated alcohol; it reminded him too much of his drunk of a father. And Ford himself had never consumed enough to ever be considered drunk, but he knew the science that went into alcohol consumption and how it was a depressive and made sadness worse.

Unless it was tequila. For some reason, tequila made girls dance on tables when you were just trying to do your homework and then you got distracted by them taking their shirts off.

Where was this train of thought going? The crying from the other room reminded Ford easily enough.

Right. He had no idea what he should do.

Maybe he should go back to getting distracted by the memory of the first and only time he had seen a human woman’s breasts. At least then he wouldn’t feel absolutely useless.

Ultimately, Ford did nothing about it until the next day, when Dipper and Mabel were awake.

Ford climbed the stairs and knocked on the door.

“Children? May I come in?” Ford asked.

“Just a minute, Grunkle Ford!” Mabel said.

When the door opened, it was Dipper who let Ford in. Mabel had yet another new sweater that he hadn’t seen before. He wondered how many of those she had.

“What is it, Great-Uncle Ford?” Dipper asked.

“I wanted to talk to the two of you. Is there a place that’s all right for me to sit down?”

Dipper immediately made space on his bed, throwing the books and pens and things to the head of the bed. Ford then sat on the bed.

“I need you two to tell me everything you can about Jimmy Snakes and what he has to do with Mephistopheles.”

Dipper’s and Mabel’s smiles fell. They looked at each other. Mabel looked nervous, but Dipper’s face took on a serious look that Ford had only before seen on hardened old men such as himself. It made his skin crawl unpleasantly as his thoughts came up with potential reasons why that would be.

“Jimmy is - he was - ” Mabel started.

“Stan used to be part of a biker gang when he was younger,” Dipper said, taking over for Mabel. “Jimmy was the leader, and he and Stan were … really close.”

“Really, really, really, really close.” Mabel said.

Ford felt like he was supposed to be able to receive information they weren’t speaking aloud through Mabel’s repetition, but whatever it was, he wasn’t picking up on it.

“But Jimmy was mean, even before he made the deal with Mephistopheles. We think. Stan didn’t seem to think he was acting any different from usual when he showed up earlier this summer.”

“Really mean. So mean Stan broke his promise not to curse in front of us when he left.”

That explained the filler curses Stan was using.

“So Jimmy shows up, right? And he’s been given an opportunity to transfer his deal off to someone else. So he decides he’s gonna try to get Stan to do it for him.”

“We think. We never actually got to ask,” Mabel said. “It was either that or steal our souls.”

“So Jimmy -” Dipper started, but then his voice hitched, and Ford could hear Dipper’s breath quicken. “I think Jimmy’s bad news right away, ‘cause his eyes do this red glowing thing. But Mabel’s looking on the bright side, so it took a while to convince her, and we both knew we had to do something when Jimmy -”

Whatever Jimmy had done, neither twin liked thinking about it. A chill went up Ford’s spine as his imagination went rampant.

“Children, I need you to tell me. I know it’s hard, and I think you’re both very brave. I wouldn’t press it if it wasn’t important.”

It broke Ford’s heart to see Dipper start to tear up. It was Mabel who told him in the end.

“We didn’t see the actual fight, but Jimmy punched Grunkle Stan in the face. He had a black eye he hid behind his eye patch the whole next day, but he hadn’t been able to hide it in time to keep it a secret from us. He wouldn’t tell Soos or Wendy. I had to do it.”

“Grunkle Stan bruises kind of easily. I think it’s an old man thing,” Dipper said quietly. “There were other bruises I noticed. While I was stuck with that cast on my leg and Grunkle Stan had to help me move around the house.”

Mabel didn’t seem to have known that before, and both she and Ford stared at Dipper, speechless. Dipper started to rock back and forth gently.

“I - I at least hope he bruises easily…. ‘Cause they were kinda dark and … . B-but he grabbed him and - and I dunno what else.”

Ford put a hand on Dipper’s shoulder.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to think about it anymore,” Ford said. “… What about you in a cast?”

Mabel frowned deeply, and she hugged her stuffed unicorn to her chest tightly.

Dipper responded as though it had happened in a book to some fictional character.

“I made a deal with Jimmy that if I won, he had to leave and never bother Stan again and never come back to Gravity Falls. If he won, I’d have to do something for him. He never really said what it was, but Mephistopheles made it sound like I would’ve had to become a demonic biker in his place. I won, but I broke my leg and had a few scrapes.”

It was said so nonchalantly and detached, like Dipper didn’t care that he had gotten hurt. Ford wasn’t sure if he was more shocked by that or the fact that Dipper had gotten so hurt.

“You made a deal with an occupation demon and won?” Ford said, awestruck.

Dipper managed to smile a little bit. “Yeah. I did.”

“That was incredibly brave of you, Dipper,” Ford said. He didn’t have it in him to berate him for being reckless. “I can’t imagine how frightening that must’ve been for the two of you.”

Ford and Stan had grown up with Filbrick for a father. They had gotten a fair share of ass-whoopings growing up, but they had never been struck across the face. Spankings and switches to the butt were very different from what Ford would call domestic or physical violence. And Filbrick had never, ever lifted a hand against their mother. If nothing else, Filbrick had treated their mother with nothing but kindness. And both parents had gotten along fairly well with other adults. He genuinely couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like to be in a home where you had to watch your parent or guardian getting beaten up by someone else or know that it was happening.

“Thank you for telling me,” Ford said.

“You’re welcome. Now you can help us look after Grunkle Stan,” Dipper said, smiling more now.

“Yes. Yes I can,” Ford said, almost absentmindedly. He was already thinking of what he could do with the information, what this meant for Stan, and what he would need to do in order to protect the Shack. “Now, are you sure what Stan was upset about involved Jimmy?”

“No,” Mabel said. “But Jimmy was the only time we had ever seen him that upset.”

“I see. That’s good deductive reasoning. I’ll see what I can do to get to the bottom of this. Hopefully, it’ll be something not supernatural related and that no one will be in any actual danger.”

Ford stood up and let the children go about their business. Dipper had looked like he hadn’t finished getting dressed yet.

Mabel lay on the bed again, and Dipper went about switching his shorts and shirt and finding his trusty vest.

“Dipper?”

“Yeah, Mabel?”

“If Jimmy really is back, promise me you won’t put yourself in harm’s way again. Please?”

Dipper looked over at Mabel, a surprised look on his face.

He saw her tears, and he immediately felt responsible for it.

“I don’t want you getting hurt again. I don’t want Grunkle Stan getting hurt, either, but if you got hurt like that again, I don’t know what I’d do - !”

Dipper went over to Mabel and brushed her hair out of her face, gently pressing his hand against her forehead.

“Hey, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine,” Dipper said. “Great-Uncle Ford is here now. With him, we’ll be able to protect everybody from everything. Okay?”

Mabel reached out for him and pulled him into a hug. Dipper awkwardly patted her.

Dipper had always been a bit averse to physical contact, which was why they had their awkward sibling hug ritual in the first place, but he was willing to give Mabel whatever she needed in order to feel better.


	3. Chapter 3

Ford still remembered how to contact Mephistopheles. At first, he had planned on asking Stan first before going to the gatekeeper of sinner’s souls, but not only did Stan have a headache from drinking the night before, he was still incredibly irritable and refused to talk to him.

“Stan, I was hoping we could talk about last ni-?”

“I’ve gotta open up the store.”

And then he ducked out of the house part of the Shack.

That was his first attempt.

The second didn’t go any better.

“How’s work going today?”

“Fine.”

“Good, good…. So about last night -”

“I think I hear Soos calling.”

Neither did the third.

“I’m actually rather impressed, Stanley. I never thought you’d be such a good cook.”

“Heh. There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” 

“Yes, there is. Care to open up about some of it? Like what happened last - ?”

“I better check on the oven.”

Nor the fourth.

“C’mon, Stanley! Just talk to me!”

“No.”

“I want to help you!”

“I don’t need your help.”

Ford Pines was not exactly a patient man. Or rather, he was patient when it came to science. When he was almost guaranteed some kind of response or satisfactory result.

He did not have patience for feelings and conversations that were bound to open up those feelings, and he was a big fan of just ripping the bandage off. And Stan wasn’t allowing him to do that. It was quickly becoming a frustration, and one that he really wanted to get around and just not have.

It was far easier to summon a demon from the pits of Hell and just ask him to investigate for him.

So that night, Ford did just that.

Mephistopheles looked a little different from how Ford remembered him.

“What happened to your skin?” Ford asked.

“What happened to your hair?” Mephistopheles countered.

Ford narrowed his eyes at Mephistopheles.

“What is it you want from me?” Mephistopheles asked. “I took care of Chef Cleo, and I trust that a man of your caliber in the study of the supernatural can otherwise take care of himself.”

“My niece and nephew told me about a biker from your collection had come through Gravity Falls and endangered the whole family. Jimmy Snakes, they said his name was? My brother - Stanley - has been acting strangely, and the children say the last time he was acting like this was when Jimmy was here. Stanley won’t just talk to me about it, and I want to make sure that Jimmy hadn’t violated the deal that he had with my nephew.”

Mephistopheles sighed deeply, then nodded.

“I will investigate. Thank you for the tip-off. Please do not make a habit of these summons.”

“I won’t, rest assured.”

Mephistopheles then vanished, going back to whatever his personal Hell hole looked like.

Ford smiled to himself, putting his hands on his hip, satisfied.

He now had that taken care of, and he didn’t have to deal with Stanley being a stubborn donkey about it. All’s well that ends well.

The next day, everything seemed like it was going to be fine. Until late in the day, after the work day was over and Stanley was debating whether or not to cook something despite being tired or bite the bullet and take the family out.

“I could cook something,” Ford offered.

“I’ve seen how you make toast these days, no way am I letting you cook,” Stan said.

“I’m good with ice pops for dinner,” Dipper said, already pulling one out of the freezer. “All you have to do is take it out of the sleeve.”

“That’s all well and good for you, Dipper, but I’d rather we not run out of one of the few things you’re actually able to eat,” Stan said.

“Wait, what?” Ford said, having not been told already about Dipper’s eating disability.

“ _STAN PINES_!” roared a voice Ford had never heard before. It was coming from outside, but the house shook.

Now on high alert, Ford took out his gun, brain searching for possible reasons a voice could make a house shake.

Stan ducked, and the kids turned their heads to stare at the door. Stan stayed just underneath the window, to avoid being seen.

“ _What’s he doing here_?” Mabel asked in a half-whisper.

“I - I dunno,” Stan said.

“Who is it?” Ford asked, taking a few steps closer to the door, just in case.

“ _YOU GET OUT HERE, YOU LYING LITTLE SHIT! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN’T TELL_!”

“Grunkle Stan, did he break our deal!?” Dipper said. “Did you actually meet him in Gravity Falls the other day!? Why would you do that!? What’s he talking about!?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t tell anyone! I don’t know why he’s here or why he’s angry, I don’t know!” Stan said, and Ford could see him panicking.

“Stanley, it’s gonna be okay, I’m not going to let anyone hurt any of you,” Ford said.

“THANKS TO YOU, I’M STUCK IN THE GOD-FORSAKEN, DOOMED-FOR-DESTRUCTION TOWN, AND ALL BECAUSE I FELT SORRY FOR YOU AND THAT TERROR CHILD AND HIS SISTER! _DON’T YOU FUCKING IGNORE ME_!”

Ford paused. Oh. _Oh_. The rift was here in Gravity Falls. The rift had the power to destroy the world. Because of Bill. Of course the Underworld and Hell would know about Weirdmageddon.

Jimmy must’ve really violated the deal. Mephistopheles’s punishment for violating the terms of the deal was to put this asshole in a place doomed for destruction so he could suffer for eternity at the hands of a creature that was beyond their concepts of morality and understanding and empathy.

Which happened to be the exact place they lived.

Crap. But why would he violate a deal when he knew this would be the punishment if found out? And how could he really expect no one to find out? Demons were exceptional when it came to making sure deals were legit and aligning with the paperwork. Because paperwork was hellish and thus perfect for implementing evil. Someone was going to find out at some point.

There was no real reason to blame Stanley for this. He was just being a dick.

Ford was this close to opening the door and just releasing bullets on Jimmy when Stan stood up.

“Out of the way, Ford,” Stan said, his voice sounding a lot sturdier than he looked. His brother was shaking, and Ford barely processed the request.

“The hell are you talking about? Are you crazy? You can’t go out there, he’s -”

Ford peeked out to see from the window what Jimmy looked like. 

“He has fire emitting from his eyes and a whip! It’s too dangerous!”

Stan looked too pale in the face, and Ford wasn’t going to let him put himself in danger.

“He needs some kind of response, Ford,” Stan said.

Something about the way he said it made Ford hesitate. There was such firmness to the statement, despite Stan’s physical appearance, that it almost made Ford doubt his current plan. Almost.

“No! There’s no reason for him to be angry at you, you didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Ford,” Stan said, his voice quieter. “He’s going to break the door down if he doesn’t talk to me. Protecting the kids is our first priority. He can’t come in here. Understand?”

Ford hesitated. He saw what Stan meant, and Stan would know what Jimmy was capable of a bit better than Ford did. He knew the supernatural elements, but as for Jimmy’s actual behavior…. That was something only Stan would really understand.

And without Mephistopheles’s help, there was nothing Ford could really do against him. He couldn’t kill him. Occupation demons were unkillable.

Ford’s brain started to go through every possible scenario, and in way too many of them, the children somehow got hurt.

For now, Ford would have to do this Stan’s way if the children were going to remain unharmed. He’d have preferred all of them stayed safe, but he would need time to contact Mephistopheles again.

“I understand. You yell for me if things get bad,” Ford said.

Stanley nodded. “But you stay in here until then.”

“F-Fine,” Ford said.

Stanley then went out the door. Ford could hear Stanley put on his showman voice, but it got fainter the further out towards Jimmy Stanley went.

Ford kept his gun in his hand and waited for any kind of scream that would tell him Stanley needed him.

Ford didn’t move. He didn’t go to the twins, didn’t dare to say a word for fear that he would somehow miss it.

Things got eerily quiet, and it made Ford nervous.

Eventually, the door opened back up. Stanley stood there.

“All right, bad news first. The Apocalypse is happening by the end of the summer. But the good news is we’ll definitely be able to survive it!”

Ford stared at Stanley, his eyes wide.

“S-Stanley….”

It wasn’t that Ford hadn’t even seen him with black eyes or anything like that. But he really hadn’t ever seen his face look that bad after a fight before. His nose was bleeding, and he saw what Dipper meant by “he bruises easily, it’s an old man thing, I think.”

Dipper and Mabel entered the hall from the kitchen and gasped at his face.

“Grunkle Stan!”

“W-what do you mean the Apocalypse is happening but we’ll be able to survive it?” Dipper asked.

Ford was wondering the same thing. He knew the end of the world was going to happen if he didn’t keep the rift contained, but how could Stanley be so sure they’d survive it?

“We’ll go over the details later. First, Mabel, sweetie, can you go get the first aid kit? And lots of tissues? It doesn’t hurt much, but I know I look kinda scary with all this blood running.”

Mabel ran to get it, but Dipper stayed put.

“Grunkle Stan … ?”

Stan was smiling too big. It made an unpleasant shiver go up Ford’s spine.

“Did you make a deal with him?” Dipper asked.

“You don’t worry about that, okay? You leave the world-ending worrying to me and Ford, got it?”

“But Grunkle Stan - !”

Mabel returned with the first aid kit, and it made Dipper’s prodding die in his throat. Ford and Mabel helped Stan clean up his face and apply disinfectant to spots.

Stan still didn’t tell them the details like he promised, but Ford noticed him taking camping equipment outside and then coming back in without it. Jimmy’s bike was still parked in front of the Shack the next morning.


	4. Chapter 4

The bad thing about the Mephistopheles summoning was that there was this really big rule that you couldn’t call him more than once in a 48-hour period. If you did, he would set you on fire immediately. Ford still needed to wait out another 24 hours before he could summon Mephistopheles again to see what in the hell was going on with Jimmy and why he was here. To see if there was literally anything else that could be done about Jimmy.

So the first morning of Jimmy Snakes being back in their lives, Ford had to look the children in the eye, take in the children’s nervous expressions, and explain why he wasn’t taking immediate action.

“But you’re gonna call him up the moment you can, right?” Dipper asked.

“I am, certainly,” Ford said. His hands were clutching his coffee mug.

Stan was right then outside, having taken a thermos full of coffee to the tent across from the Shack. While no one had said it out loud yet, they all knew that Jimmy was camping just a few feet away from the house. Waiting.

“Has Grunkle Stan said anything to do about what he meant last night?” Mabel said, hugging Waddles to her chest. She wasn’t eating her food, and Ford still needed to figure out why Dipper apparently had few foods he was able to eat. The boy was eating a sleeve of crackers this morning that he had spread peanut butter and honey all over.

“He hasn’t, but I’m going to make sure he tells us once he comes back in,” Ford said.

He was just as nervous as the children, but he somehow felt at more of a loss as to what to do than the children did.

If things didn’t work with Mephistopheles, he would have literally nothing. Mephistopheles was their only defense at this point. Occupation demons could not be killed. They couldn’t even really be injured unless extreme force was used. They didn’t really have any options if Mephistopheles couldn’t help them for some reason.

But Ford also could not think of a reason why Mephistopheles would not help them, so his hopes were fairly high.

The door opened, and Stan returned, alone. He had the thermos still in his hands, but he took it to the sink and washed it out. It seemed all the coffee that had been in it was now gone.

“Stan, can you please tell us what’s going on?” Ford said. Subtlety was not his strong suit.

Stan sighed, then turned to face them. He leaned against the counter, placing the thermos on the counter next to him.

He crossed his arms, but whatever gruffness he wanted to have seemed to falter at the sight of Dipper’s and Mabel’s faces.

“Jimmy and I finalized and have our agreement in print,” Stan said. He took out a folded-up piece of paper from his pocket; he had gotten properly dressed first thing that morning for once. “He’s not allowed in the house, but he’ll be staying with us and protecting us from all this apocalypse junk. In exchange, we look after him. By we, I mean me and Ford. You kids don’t have to do anything for him. In fact, I’d rather you just steer clear of Jimmy. Can you do that for me?”

“But Grunkle Stan - !” both twins started, but Stan interrupted with repeating himself.

“ _Can you two do that for me_?”

The children looked at each other. Dipper’s face started turning red, and his grip on his crackers made them crumble a bit. Dipper pulled his hat further down, the brim covering his eyes.

“We can do that,” Mabel said, dejected.

Stan seemed to be willing to accept that as an answer from both of them.

“Okay then. Now, are any of you able to tell me how Mephistopheles figured out Jimmy violated his deal with Dipper? I get that I didn’t exactly do a good job convincing you guys he didn’t, but I know I kept my trap shut.”

“Mabel and I hadn’t talked to him,” Dipper muttered. Ford almost hadn’t understood what the boy had said, he had muttered it so low.

“Yeah,” Mabel said.

Ford took a deep breath.

“I … I may have contacted Mephistopheles to investigate it, but had I thought he’d have banned Jimmy to be stuck in Gravity Falls, I never would’ve done it. As it is, I’m still not certain even Mephistopheles is allowed to do that, so I’m hoping to convince him to get him to leave -”

“Absolutely not! No one in this family is dealing with any more demons! You’ll just make it worse!” Stan said.

“But Stan, Mephistopheles is the only one capable of handling occupation demons! They’re otherwise immortal and invulnerable! If Jimmy breaks your deal with him, we won’t have any defense against - !”

“ _Then you should’ve thought about that before putting your nose where it doesn’t belong_!”

“I was trying to _help you_ , you knucklehead!”

“Stop fighting!” Mabel shouted.

Both men stopped and looked at the children. Dipper had curled up in on himself and gripping his hat as though for dear life. Mabel was now looking flushed in the face.

“It’s bad enough he’s here, we don’t need you two fighting each other!”

Before any of them could do anything else, they heard a shout from outside and what sounded like Jimmy crying out in surprise.

“Oh no, _Wendy_!” Stan said, his anger melting away into sheer panic.

Stan then ran back outside, the twins and Ford listening to Stan’s hurried demands that she stop. The three of them got up and went to the door to watch what was happening.

Wendy had essentially chased Jimmy out of the tent and was prepared to go down swinging if it meant protecting the Pines family.

“Someone should probably call Soos and explain before he gets here,” Mabel said. “I think he’d have the same reaction as Wendy.”

Dipper made a very uncomfortable face.

“Not me. I think he might start crying if we tell him Jimmy’s back and there’s absolutely nothing he can do about it.”

“I’ll do it,” Mabel said, sighing heavily.

Stan pulled Wendy into the house. She was unharmed, but pissed off.

“Where the hell does that guy get off, coming back here!? And - !” Wendy gasped. “Mr. Pines, your face!”

“Yeah, about that, can you help me with the cover-up? I can’t let Soos see me like this. The make-up’s really old, but it’ll do for now.”

“Ew, expired make-up’s gross. You can use mine. Holy shit, man.”

“ _Wendy_.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. Holy crap.”

Stan sighed.

For a moment, Ford felt some comfort that he wasn’t the only one standing in the hall without a way to help.

But then Dipper hugged his stomach with his arm and covered his mouth with his hand.

“Oh no,” Dipper managed to say before he ran down the hall and locked himself in the bathroom.

Then Ford was just standing there. Without knowing what to do. Stuck waiting until later that night.

But Mephistopheles was no help.

“I thought I said not to contact me again.”

“You banished him to Gravity Falls! The very place he’s not supposed to be!”

“Now that the deal has been broken between Jimmy and Dipper, it doesn’t matter where he is as long as he is fulfilling his punishment. It’s not my fault Gravity Falls is where the Apocalypse is going to happen.”

Ford felt like Mephistopheles was putting the blame on him, and that pissed Ford off.

“You can’t make him be here! Surely there’s something else you can do with - !”

“The answer’s no, Ford Pines, and I’m tired of doing you favors and getting nothing in return.”

Ford faltered, and his mind ended up in flashback land.

The silence spread out too long for Mephistopheles’s liking.

“If you call me again, I’m setting your house on fire. Goodbye, Ford Pines.”

Ford was then left to stand in the basement, feeling just as useless in that moment as he had when he was standing in the hallway, listening to his family trying to put themselves back together and not knowing what to do.


	5. Chapter 5

Without stress, Dipper couldn’t eat many foods as it was. But with significant amounts of stress, Dipper really couldn’t keep any food down. His stomach hated accepting food while under stress, and his throat didn’t accept much food as it was.

Dipper vomited after dinner the first night Jimmy was back.

Aside from what Jimmy had done when he first showed up, the man hadn’t done much else. He stayed in the tent and drove around town and kept his word about staying out of the house. For now. Stan went from the Shack to the tent to give the demonic biker his coffee and cigarettes (demons must not need food), and that was the extent of it.

But it was freaking Dipper out.

His uncle’s abusive ex-boyfriend was back, and there was nothing Dipper could do, and it was killing his stomach.

But Great-Uncle Ford would have a solution. He said Mephistopheles could fix this. He had to be able to fix this. Dipper was sure that by morning, Jimmy would be gone.

The first thing Dipper did after waking up (after a very restless sleep) was look out the window.

He could still see the tent.

Dipper knew that he shouldn’t eat breakfast until he talked to Great-Uncle Ford.

Dipper took the stairs two at a time before Mabel even had time to wake up.

He found Great-Uncle Ford on the couch in the living room. The man was asleep, but Dipper wasn’t sure how long he had been asleep.

“Great-Uncle Ford?” Dipper whispered.

“Hngh?”

Ford blinked for a few moments, having been a bit startled awake. He looked over at Dipper, then adjusted his glasses a bit.

“Dipper?”

“Did you talk to Mephistopheles?”

Ford frowned. Dipper didn’t like that.

The look on Dipper’s face made Ford so, so hesitant to tell him the truth. But what choice did he have?

“I did. And … there’s nothing anyone can do. Jimmy is stuck in Gravity Falls as punishment, and Mephistopheles is not budging on his decision. We’re … we’re stuck with Jimmy.”

Since he had only just woken up and had no natural tact, Ford realized too late that he should have phrased that differently. That they weren’t necessarily stuck with Jimmy, but that Jimmy would continue to be uncomfortably close to the family. Even if Jimmy were to be forcibly relocated to the other side of town.

He shouldn’t have made it sound like Jimmy would forever be in their front yard.

Dipper felt his stomach squeeze and twist, and despite not having eaten anything since last night, Dipper felt the urge to upchuck.

Dipper pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, trying to force the feeling to just go away. He knew he didn’t have anything left to upheave. It was just his stupid stomach.

“Dipper, are you feeling ill?” Ford remembered Dipper vomiting twice yesterday, and still no one had explained why Dipper apparently had a limited diet. In the midst of everything else, it had slipped his mind to actually ask again, but he was starting to worry.

“I - I - I - I -” Dipper took a deep breath, then pressed the back of his hand to his mouth again. He could handle this, he could do this. C’mon, not in front of Great-Uncle Ford!

Dipper weighed his options. He knew Ford didn’t know about any of Dipper’s issues. Not the eating disability. Not the autism. Not the insomnia.

Dipper also had no idea what Ford would think of him if he shared any of that.

It was one thing for Stan to tell Ford, but Dipper didn’t feel like he had it in him to admit any of that to Ford.

He wanted Great-Uncle Ford to like him really badly. With everything else, the last thing he needed was being a disappointment to Great-Uncle Ford.

No, he couldn’t handle telling him. Not right now. Maybe not ever.

“I’m okay,” Dipper eventually said.

“Are you sure?” Ford said, taking his hand and pressing it to Dipper’s forehead. “Hm…. You don’t have a fever.”

“Really, I’m fine,” Dipper said, batting his hand away. “Is there anything else we can do about Jimmy?”

“Well,” Ford said, “there are some precautions I was going to take regardless, because of Bill Cipher.”

Ford realized he had never mentioned Bill to the child before.

“Because of Bill? Is - is he the one behind the apocalypse Stan mentioned?”

“You - you know Bill?”

Dipper nodded. “He tried to help Gideon steal the Shack and also took control of my body so he could ruin Mabel’s sock puppet show.”

Ford opened his mouth, then furrowed his eyebrows.

“Why would Bill care about a sock puppet show?”

“Long story,” Dipper said, choosing not to tell Ford. He didn’t think Ford would appreciate Mabel using the journal in her play, but he also didn’t want to get Mabel into trouble either. “Wait, we should probably have Mabel here for the rest of this conversation if we’re gonna be talking about Bill.”

“Oh. All right,” Ford said, a little taken aback.

Dipper then ran up the stairs to wake Mabel up.

“Is Jimmy gone?” Mabel asked after she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“No….”

“What? Why not?”

“Great-Uncle Ford says Mephistopheles refused to help.”

“That heck-fire jerk!”

“Great-Uncle Ford says there’s something we can do, though, and it’ll also protect us from Bill. I told him to wait to continue until I got you.”

“Okay, okay. Lemme get dressed. And you get dressed too, while we’re at it.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter where the R-word is used.

Ford placed the helmet that was connected to the thought encrypting machine atop of Dipper’s head.

“This way is safer than the metal plate and will have the same function.”

Ford looked at the screen, and Dipper turned his head so he could see what Ford was seeing.

A myriad of thoughts moved across the screen, occasionally accompanied by an image.

 _I hope Mabel gets the unicorn hair, I don’t want Jimmy here, I don’t want him to hurt Grunkle Stan,_ an image of Stan’s black eye from earlier in the summer, Grunkle Stan putting his hand over it to try to hide it, the light from inside making it a little difficult to see, _my stomach’s really bothering me, I’m starving, but I don’t want to puke, what would Great-Uncle Ford think?, I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t, he doesn’t have to know._

Dipper ducked his head. Ford turned to look at him.

“Dipper?”

“It’s nothing,” Dipper said, the screen becoming a series of _Don’t Think About It Don’t Think About It Don’t Think About It_ in a desperate attempt to keep it a secret. 

Ford watched the screen, eyebrows furrowing.

“Don’t think about what?” It had to be about why the boy was vomiting, right? Though he supposed it could have something to do with Jimmy…. Ford had watched the image of his brother pass by, his own stomach twisting a bit. He couldn’t imagine what that must’ve felt like from a child’s perspective. As horrible as it felt to see it as an adult, it must’ve felt even worse for someone as young as Dipper. It was easier to ask about the vomiting than about Stan or Jimmy.

The moment Ford asked, the answer went across the screen.

_Eating disability, autism, eating disability, autism, disabled disabled disabled,_

“That’s not fair,” Dipper said, his voice taking on a bit of a whine.

Ford raised an eyebrow. He had literally never heard of an eating disability. Or this … autism.

“Eating disability? Like, anorexia?”

The screen’s words turned into a giant red NO. Dipper then took the helmet off and sat it on his lap.

“N-no, not - not anorexia. That’s an eating disorder.”

“And … the difference is … ?”

“It’s not in my head, it’s -” Dipper started, then took a deep breath. He was trying to find the right words, and Ford waited. Dipper mumbled it really badly, so Ford had to strain to hear it. “Mom and Dad don’t like talking about it, but I was born with the umbilical chord around my neck and I was really blue, and because of that I can’t eat most stuff.”

“Oh.” Ford said.

“Anorexia is when you’re convinced you’re fat or something like that,” Dipper said, hugging the helmet to his chest. He hadn’t wanted to have this conversation, wasn’t ready for this conversation.

Great-Uncle Ford wasn’t saying anything, and the silence felt like it dragged on forever.

Ford just really didn’t know how to respond to that. What could he say to that?

“And … what’s the other thing?”

“Autism. It, ah, was first researched and given a name by Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner? In the ‘40s?”

“Um…. That … that might have been outside of my realm of studies.” 

“Right. Well, it’s - it’s a developmental … disability…. The doctors aren’t sure if I had it before or after the, ah, the y’know, but Grunkle Stan actually had a lot of stories that helped the psychologist make a decision.”

While Dipper and Mabel had not spent much time with Stan outside of this summer, they had met him a few other times before. Dipper and Mabel knew Stan had been there when they were born (and he was the only one who could talk about Dipper’s birth details without looking too sad about it), and their parents had convinced him to visit when Dipper was getting his autism diagnosis.

“Oh!” Ford said, clarity sparking in his eyes. “Wait, you’re retarded? But you’ve been acting so normal.”

Dipper stared at Ford with wide eyes, slack-jawed. Ford realized after Dipper made the face that he must’ve said something wrong.

“Dipper? If - if I said something I shouldn’t have, I apologize. I don’t know what people do or don’t say anymore.” 

Ford watched as his apology registered in Dipper’s brain. Part of him wished the helmet was still on his head so he could know what was going through Dipper’s mind. And how it was even possible for someone as young as Dipper to look so ashamed of themselves despite not doing anything wrong.

Dipper looked away from Ford as he tried to get his bearings, and Ford waited.

“P-people still use the R-word, but only - only if they’re being mean or ignorant on purpose.”

“I see. I think I understand. I truly am sorry about that, Dipper.”

“… Great-Uncle Ford, would it be possible if you … didn’t look at what I was thinking when I put this back on?”

“Of course it would be. I have some things to work on that’ll keep my attention. I’ll work on it over here while it does its thing, and I won’t read your thoughts.”

Dipper slipped the helmet back on. Ford moved to a desk that was in the room and got comfortable.

For the most part, Ford kept his promise, but occasionally he glanced at the screen.

He immediately looked away when he noticed it was just a series of repeats of the word “retarded” and the occasional _I hate it when this happens, this’ll be stuck in my head for hours, when’s Mabel coming home_.

The encryption took a very long time. Eventually, Ford fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Mabel had really come through with the unicorn hair. Now that he and Dipper had set up the barrier around the Shack, Ford had to think about his options.

He trusted Dipper, probably more than he had been able to trust anyone in a very long time. However, he wasn’t willing to put Dipper in danger if the situations he needed his help with were too much for him. While Ford could only see the eating disability becoming a problem if the apocalypse really did happen, the autism was another thing entirely.

He trusted Dipper, but his confidence in Dipper’s ability to cope and actually do the work had taken a hit.

Ford looked over the additions that had been made to the journal. It was Dipper’s handwriting, certainly. He knew that much. However….

He saw the sweater out of the corner of his eye.

“Good morning, Mabel,” Ford said.

“Morning, Great-Uncle Ford.”

“Are you busy right now?”

“Well, I was just gonna head on to the Shack to help with cleaning and stuff, so Dipper doesn’t have to sweep all by himself.”

“Would you mind sitting down and talking to me about a few things first? I promise I won’t take up too much of your time.” 

Mabel sat down at the table.

“What’s up?”

“I wanted to ask you a few things about the journal and your and Dipper’s adventures and notes.”

“… Shouldn’t you talk to Dipper about that? He’s the one who did all the note-taking.”

“I … I will, I just wanted to get your side of things first.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, I guess I should talk about our first adventure with the gnomes….”

Meanwhile, Dipper was in the shop with Wendy and Soos. Wendy and Soos told everyone who was willing to listen about the apocalypse news and that they should prepare (and if they weren’t native to Gravity Falls, that they should probably make today be their last day). Not many people took them seriously, but a few did. People who lived here and knew Soos and Wendy and knew they wouldn’t lie about that. But most people thought it was part of the tourist trap.

Grunkle Stan had stepped out after returning from a tour. The thermos of coffee was being a very constant thing with Stan going out to the tent to check on Jimmy.

He had been gone for a while.

“Soos, Wendy, I’m gonna go check on Grunkle Stan,” Dipper said, leaning the broom against the wall behind the counter.

“Take Soos with you,” Wendy said. She was stuck behind the counter and they were busy today.

Dipper couldn’t imagine saying no to Wendy’s serious face.

Dipper and Soos walked out to the tent, but it was empty.

“Grunkle Stan?” Dipper called.

“Mr. Pines?”

Dipper looked around, but he couldn’t see Jimmy’s bike anywhere.

“Where could they have gone? Why did they leave!?” Soos asked, starting to panic.

Dipper’s face hardened, and he broke into a run and headed into town.

“Dipper! Wait up!”

The moment Dipper got into the main area of town, he slowed to a stop, eyes scanning the town and jaw dropping a bit.

Suddenly the town was Biker Central. Dipper had no idea why. He walked down the sidewalk, scanning the place for Jimmy or Stan. Jimmy was starting to look like he might be difficult to pick out, and that was fine, as long as Dipper could locate Stan and make sure he was okay.

If Jimmy had decided to just leave them alone, that was fine, but he wanted to make sure Grunkle Stan was all right.

He eventually found him. Unfortunately, Jimmy was right next to him, but at least he had found him.

“Grunkle Stan!”

Stan turned around as Dipper ran over to him.

“Dipper? What’re you doing here?”

“I came looking for you. What’s going on?”

“Jimmy called in some favors. A bunch of the ole biker gang is now in town and some others. They’re gonna stick around for the end of the world, help out.”

“That’s … nice of him,” Dipper said in a tone that showed that he thought it more suspicious than nice.

Dipper and Jimmy made eye contact, and they both narrowed their eyes at each other. Dipper moved closer to Stan and clung to his suit jacket. Somehow, it didn’t actually look childish but more like Dipper was trying to turn himself into a human shield.

“This is Spitfire, by the way. Spitfire, meet Dipper. He’s my nephew.”

“Also known as the Terror Twin,” Jimmy grumbled.

“Hey there,” the new biker guy said, offering his hand to Dipper. Dipper eyed it suspiciously, looking up into the guy’s face.

He looked normal, but….

“Spitfire, you haven’t made any deals with demons in the last 35 years, have you?”

“N-no?”

“He’s okay, Dipper. You can shake it.”

Dipper hesitantly put his hand out and shook hands with Spitfire, then he quickly took his hand back and went back to clinging to Stan’s side.

“Dipper? Mr. Pines?” Soos’s voice floated over.

“Did you leave him in the dust again?”

“I wanted to find you,” Dipper said, a defensive note to his voice.

“Well, go tell him you found me,” Stan said, pushing him in the direction of Soos’s voice.

Dipper went to grab Soos, then came right back, just in time to overhear Spitfire ask why Dipper is the “Terror Twin.”

“I challenged him to a race and won,” Dipper said, crossing his arms and slipping in right between Jimmy and Stan once more.

Jimmy just gave a long-suffering sigh.

“Yes. That happened.”

Spitfire looked impressed, and Dipper felt some pride well up in his chest at the acknowledgement and response.

“And he has a not nearly as terrible twin sister,” Jimmy said.

“You clearly hadn’t had what she calls ‘Mabel Juice’ if Dipper’s the terror twin,” Stan deadpanned, though Dipper could tell from how Stan was sweating that he wasn’t all that comfortable with either twin being called a terror or terrible. “Anyway, Dipper should get back to the Shack. Has all that sweeping and dusting to do in the shop.”

Stan then steered Dipper away from Jimmy and Spitfire and walked with Soos back towards the Shack.

“What were you two doing?” Dipper asked, his voice having an edge to it.

“Just trying to prepare for the end of the world,” Stan said.

“Where’s the thermos?”

“In the tent.”

“And when were you gonna come back if we hadn’t gone to get you?”

“ _Dipper_ , I’m a grown man.”

“And Jimmy’s an asshole, and I don’t trust him!”

“You don’t have to trust him, Dipper. I don’t even really trust him, I just - !”

Stan forced his mouth shut, then took a deep breath through his nose.

“I don’t expect you to understand, but sometimes there are things people have to do in order to take care of themselves and make the best out of their situation. Sometimes people have to rely on people who don’t really deserve that faith and trust. And I hope that when you’re older, you never have to do that, but right now, just trust me to do what I need to do in order to take care of you. All right?”

Dipper didn’t want to understand. He didn’t want this to be happening.

Soos went back into the store, but Stan and Dipper went into the house. Stan hadn’t eaten yet, and Dipper lied about having eaten earlier. He still didn’t think he could keep anything down. But he wanted to continue talking to Stan.

Anything Dipper wanted to say died when they entered the kitchen and overheard what Ford and Mabel were talking about.

“Sure, I’ll go on an adventure to get the adhesive thingie. It’ll be fun to go with you and Dipper!”

“A-actually, I was thinking we could do it just us!” Ford said, his voice sounding a little off.

“Huh? How come?”

“I - well - I’m just concerned about how safe he’d be.”

“… And? What’s so different between me and Dipper? I got the unicorn hair just fine, and Dipper’s done plenty of stuff without me. Dipper saved me from the gnomes and Gideon, remember? I just told those -”

“Yes, yes, I remember, and I get where you’re coming from, but - you know how - I just think you’re better suited for this mission. That’s what I’m trying to say.”

“You’re not supposed to be taking either of them on supernatural missions!” Stan interjected, stepping into the kitchen. “I said you could hang out with them, not put them in danger! Neither are going anywhere dangerous!”

“Stan!” Ford said, startled. “I just need her help getting adhesive for the Rift, it’s not actually dangerous - !”

He cut himself short when he saw Dipper.

The betrayal he saw in the child’s eyes made his words curl up in on themselves, and he felt like if he opened his mouth, it would smell like death.

“D-Dipper, I - !”

“She’s better suited for the mission because she’s not a retard. Right, Great-Uncle Ford?”

The temperature in the room dropped significantly.

“Th-that’s not true, Grunkle Ford wouldn’t do that,” Mabel said. “Right, Ford?”

“R-right, I didn’t mean it like tha-”

“ _Don’t lie to me_!”

Stan flinched; Dipper was too focused on Ford to notice, and Ford and Mabel were too focused on Dipper.

“I’m not stupid, I know that’s not true! Now that you know I’m autistic, you don’t want anything to do with me! Admit it!”

“I just want you to be safe!” Ford pleaded.

But Dipper, now red in the face (from both anger and embarrassment), turned and ran.

“Dipper!”

Ford and Mabel both ran after him. Stan knew he should run after him too, but he found himself rooted to the spot. Old habits that Stan had worked hard to kill were becoming necessary again, and despite knowing that it was Dipper, despite knowing that Dipper would never want to hurt him and couldn’t even if he did (not at his current size, weight, and muscle mass), his brain was telling his body to stay put, it’ll pass, stay put, it’ll pass, and then everything will be fine.

Everything will be fine if you stay still.

It didn’t matter that Stan objectively and rationally understood that was a load of bull. But it was a load of bull that Jimmy’s presence had resurrected.

Stan eventually made himself move.

Just in time for Ford and Mabel to return.

“We couldn’t catch up to him!” Ford said. “He went into the forest, I’m not sure which way he went.”

Stan bit back the curse he wanted to say. He didn’t have it in him to be creative enough to think of a replacement word.

“I’ll close up the shop and get Wendy and Soos to help look. We’ll find him.”

Despite their best efforts, the sun set, and Dipper was still nowhere to be found.


	8. Chapter 8

Dipper was still missing the next day.

First thing Stan did in the morning was go to Jimmy’s tent.

Jimmy unzipped the tent and took in Stan’s worried expression and haphazardly-tied, thin, red bowtie. The suit was terribly wrinkled and clearly hadn’t been cleaned since he wore it last, if he had taken it off at all.

“I know you don’t like him, but Dipper is missing and I’m worried sick. He ran off with nothing but the clothes he was wearing, and I don’t think he’s eaten for hours, possibly since the day before yesterday. Please, _please_ help me find him. I’ll - I’ll do - !”

Jimmy pressed a finger against Stan’s mouth, and Stan fell silent.

“We have an arrangement, remember? Sure I’ll help find him, kitten.”

A little voice in Stan’s head tried to tell him that this was how it always started with Jimmy, that he’d be the knight in shining armor that he needed and be really great to have around, just enough to get Stan to take him back and let things slide until it was right back where they had left off, complete with broken wrists and bruised skin.

But Stan didn’t give a damn about that voice. Dipper was missing, and he’d do anything to get Dipper back.

And even if Stan knew it wouldn’t last, knowing that Jimmy would take care of him was what had drawn him to the man in the first place.

Jimmy’s thumb brushed against Stan’s bottom lip, and Stan turned away, not willing to go through this right now. Jimmy let him go. For now. He drank from the thermos Stan had brought. He finished the coffee, then took his bike into town to alert the gang.

Meanwhile, Ford finished staring at the ceiling instead of sleeping, then grabbed the Rift and put it into his bag. He also grabbed a magnetic gun, then considered his options.

He climbed the stairs to find Mabel, but there was no one in the children’s bedroom. 

Ford lingered in the bedroom for a moment, truly taking in what the room looked like. Mabel’s side looked like what Ford had always assumed a girl’s room would look like. Posters of boy bands and things like that.

But Dipper’s had Journal #3 near the pillow and was littered with paper and pens and had a board hung on the wall that showed all of his work towards solving the mysteries of Gravity Falls.

Ford turned away and hurried down the stairs before he could give it any further thought. He forced his brain to not make the connections. He realized he didn’t want to know just how much he had hurt Dipper.

The boy had dedicated his entire summer to what was in the journal - to who learning who Ford _was_ \- and the very man he had invested so much of himself in had turned around and called him - called him that awful word and showed no faith in his ability to -

It didn’t matter right then, Ford thought to himself. His guilt and apologies meant nothing if Dipper wasn’t around to hear them and if the Rift wasn’t sealed shut.

Dipper lost in the forest was bad, but Dipper lost in the forest during Weirdmageddon was horrifying.

Ford comforted himself with the thought that Mabel and Stan were still looking for Dipper. And if Ford thought he had come across Dipper, he would stop his retrieval of the alien adhesive immediately. But the Rift was too dangerous to leave waiting.

Dipper would understand.

It took a few hours, but Ford successfully found the adhesive. He had to fight off a couple alien robots that wanted to take him to Alien Prison, but in the end, he was fine and he had the adhesive.

Ford decided that it’d be safer to apply the adhesive once he got back to the Shack.

When he arrived, Stan, Mabel, Soos, Wendy, Grenda, a little Asian girl he had never met before, and two police officers were standing in the yard between the house and Jimmy’s tent. Stan was pacing, and the fat cop - Ford couldn’t think of a name to attach to the face, so it must not have been a cop from 30 years ago - was talking rather seriously about the search for Dipper.

“We’re still looking, but there’s only so much of the forest that is even accessible to humans, and a lot of it hasn’t really been explored, even by Manly Dan and his family.”

“Has anyone checked Multibear’s cave?” Mabel asked. “I don’t know where it is, ‘cause Dipper’s directions were confusing, but he could be there! He’s friends with Multibear!”

“Dipper encountered the Multibear?” Ford asked.

“Great-Uncle Ford! Did you find Dipper?”

The two policemen raised their eyebrows, and they looked from Stan to Ford then back again. Ford would deal with that later.

“N-no, I didn’t. I got the adhesive for sealing the Rift up, though.”

There was a long pause. Its existence confused Ford.

“You - you weren’t out looking for Dipper?” Mabel said.

Her face was starting to remind Ford very strongly of how Dipper had looked at him when he had caught him trying to convince Mabel to go adventuring without him.

“Mabel, I explained why sealing up the Rift is important. Dipper being gone would be a lot worse of a situation if it broke.”

“But - but you know the weird stuff around here better than anybody! What if Dipper was nearby but hurt and couldn’t yell for you and - !”

“It wasn’t like I wasn’t keeping an eye out, I just wasn’t actively - !”

“What could you possibly have been doing that was more important than Dipper!?” Stan interrupted.

Ford was struck by exactly how much like Filbrick Pines Stan had grown up to look like. He wondered if he looked the same when he was angry. He probably did.

“Stanley, you don’t understand! The Rift is what would cause the Apocalypse if it broke! It has to stay contained!”

“What do you mean it’ll cause the Apocalypse?!”

“Dipper thinks you hate him, and you weren’t looking for him! You love Dipper, don’t you!?”

“Of course I do, Mabel, but - !” 

“ _Ford, what about the apocalypse and what does it have to do with this Rift you’re talking about_!?”

“Oh, will you relax!? The Apocalypse won’t happen, not now that I have the adhesive! Look!”

Ford took the Rift out and the piece of alien machinery that had the adhesive on it.

“All I have to do is apply the adhesive, and it’ll be fine! Then we’ll all be able to look for Dipper without worrying about the world ending and Jimmy Snakes can get the hell off my front lawn!”

“He’s only _on_ our front lawn because _you_ had to _anger his boss_!”

“I wouldn’t have angered Mephistopheles if he hadn’t come around breaking his deal with Dipper in the first place!”

“ _He was only here so he could warn me about this world-ending bullshit you apparently know so much about_!”

“ _Well_ , he wouldn’t have had to do that if _someone hadn’t re-started the portal_!”

“I saved your life!”

“You’re the one who pushed me in in the first place!”

“It was an accident, you jerk! And you started that fight!”

“There wouldn’t have _been_ a fight if you hadn’t tried to burn my research!”

“ _You were the one who told me to get rid of it_!”

“And none of this changed the fact that _you weren’t looking for Dipper_!” Mabel screamed.

Both adults stopped yelled, and Mabel had to take a few deep breaths after she finished.

“Dipper’s all alone and upset and thinks his favorite person in the world hates him! And he said that bad word when he hates that word, and I don’t understand what’s going on, but you hurt Dipper and you’re not even trying to make it up to him! I don’t care if that thing determines the fate of the world, he thinks you don’t want him around, and you aren’t doing anything to prove him wrong!”

Ford genuinely balked at the lack of logic the last statement held. Didn’t care about the fate of the world? Objectively speaking, the fate of the world was more important than a child’s feelings, and Dipper would understand that. Ford was confident Dipper would understand that.

But she hit where it hurt.

“I don’t mean it like that!” Ford pleaded.

“It doesn’t matter what you mean! Dipper could be starving to death! I might never see my brother again, and _it’s all your fault_!”

Tears had started to well up in Mabel’s eyes as she said it. She quickly turned and ran into the Shack.

“Mabel, wait!”

Ford ran after her, but he misjudged the step leading up to the front porch.

Ford tripped. The Rift flew from his hand.

The Rift bounced off the wall and flew into the front lawn.

“NO!”

Ford turned around only to watch as the Rift shattered.

“ _Everyone in the house now_!” Ford ordered, quickly getting to his feet. Soos, Wendy, Stan, and the two police officers ran into the Shack. Ford slammed the door behind them and locked it.

He could hear Bill Cipher’s laughter through the wood.


	9. Chapter 9

Despite Ford’s insistence that he had a way to make all of this stop, to put an end to the evil triangle, Stan refused to let him leave the Shack.

“You and Mabel are staying put inside the Shack! And that’s final!”

The only reason Ford agreed to it is that Mabel and her two friends really did need someone to look after them, and Mabel hadn’t left her bedroom since she had ran into it in tears. She wouldn’t listen to his pleas for her to come out, to try to listen to him and his apologies.

He was pretty sure she opened the door to talk to Stan or Soos or Wendy about whether or not they had found Dipper, but she determinedly ignored him.

It had been two days since the Apocalypse started, and Dipper was still no where to be found. A part of Ford had already accepted that the boy was dead and that it was all his fault and that he deserved all of Mabel’s wrath. Another part of him refused to believe that and kept telling him that Dipper would show up any day now. Stan or Wendy or Soos would find the boy and bring him home, and Ford would be able to apologize for being so thoughtless.

Every time one of the others, be it Stan, the employees, or the two policemen, came back from their searches for Dipper, they brought another person into the Shack to take refuge.

So far, there was another little girl - Pacifica, she said her name was - a Manotaur, Multibear (but without Dipper, and the amount of crushing disappointment Ford felt was indescribable), a small collection of gnomes, a few of Jimmy’s biker gang members, and Fiddleford McGucket.

Ford hadn’t recognized the man at first, but once Stan told him it was “Old Man McGucket,” it was as though someone had punched Ford in the gut.

“But - but we’re the same height,” Ford said weakly as he took in McGucket’s appearance.

McGucket still couldn’t really remember who Ford was, and now that both he and Stan were occupying the same space, it seemed to make the man’s brain struggle with memories too much. He kept calling Stan Stanford, and while that was understandable considering Stan had been using the name for the last thirty years, McGucket also kept getting confused when it would turn out Stan had ten fingers instead of twelve, but couldn’t seem to figure out that Ford was the real Stanford.

Ford was regretting never telling the man that he had had a twin brother.

Stan, meanwhile, was starting to feel like he was losing his wits. Dipper was still missing. He hadn’t seen Jimmy since he had begged him to help look for Dipper. The guilt over losing Dipper was eating him away inside, and Stan was having nightmares over what would happen if Jimmy showed up, much worse for wear, and blaming Stan and his family for it.

Despite being in a literal apocalypse, not finding Dipper and Jimmy being angry at him and Mabel and Ford were still the most frightening things Stan could think of right then.

Stan and Ford were doing the night watch together as the rest of the survivors slept in their various places around the house. Grenda, Candy, and Pacifica were all up in Mabel’s room while the others found their own spots to sleep. Stan had let Soos take his bed while he was awake, and Ford had managed to successfully subtly suggest that McGucket take his.

It was the roar that alerted them that something was outside. While Ford tensed, not recognizing the sound, Stan jumped up and ran to the door. He peeked through the window first, eyes widening.

“It’s Jimmy!” Stan said, not bothering to keep quiet for the others.

Ford leaped to his feet.

“Is he alone?” Ford asked.

“I can’t tell from here,” Stan said, and he reached for the doorknob.

“Stan, wait!” Ford said, reaching him and grabbing his wrist. “If we open the door and there’s anything else out there - !”

“You were the one who put that barrier up, isn’t it supposed to keep everything out?” Stan said impatiently.

“Yes, but if we open the door it gets weaker. Besides, Jimmy’s a demonic entity, he won’t be able to breach the barrier. There’s no point in opening it for him.”

The look Stan gave Ford was painful to look at, and Ford couldn’t understand why Stan seemed to care so much about a man who had beat him black and blue and frightened the children.

Stan looked back out through the window, and Ford watched as his brother’s torn expression faded into shock and … awe.

“He - he has Dipper! Ford, he found Dipper!”

“What!?”

Ford looked out through the window and saw that, indeed, Jimmy Snakes had gotten off his bike and was hurrying towards the Shack, carrying something in his arms. Ford could see Dipper’s hat.

For a moment, Ford’s paranoia told him it was possible that Jimmy had found something to pretend to be Dipper just so the man could try to trick them into letting him into the Shack.

But Ford couldn’t voice that soon enough.

Stan threw the door open and went out onto the porch.

“Stanley!”

Ford stood in the doorway, watching.

Jimmy reached the Shack, but he hit the barrier. Just as Ford had warned, Jimmy as a demonic entity could not move past it.

But now that meant neither could Dipper.

“Give him here!” Ford said, moving out onto the porch and holding his arms out.

“What gives, Stan!?”

“Magic thingy that’s keeping this place safe from the Triangle Guy!”

“Why’s it keeping me out?”

“Because you’re evil, now hand him over!” Ford said, not having the patience for this. The longer the door was open, the more in danger everyone inside was.

But Stan reached out his hand, past the barrier.

“Grab on!” Stan said.

Jimmy took hold of Stan’s hand, holding Dipper close to his body somehow with one arm. With as much strength as Stan could manage, he pulled Jimmy closer to the house. The barrier caught on Jimmy’s hand, and for a moment, Ford could see a flash of fire.

“Stanley, what’re you - !?” Ford started, but soon he could see it for himself.

Despite having no reason to think it would work, the fact that Jimmy was being pulled through the barrier by a creature who could pass through the barrier with no problems was helping Jimmy make it through.

Ford watched as the barrier burned where Jimmy had exposed skin, though the demonic man just grunted through the pain.

Soon, despite all of Ford’s defensive measures, a being that wasn’t supposed to be able to go through the barrier was now on the other side of it. On their front porch. Holding their grand-nephew in his arms.

Jimmy panted slightly.

“Ow,” he said.

The three of them stepped back into the house, and Ford closed the door behind them.

“I tried feeding him while we made our way back, but he kept vomiting everything I could get my hands on,” Jimmy said. “And I can’t read anyone’s temperatures anymore, but I think he’s running a fever.”

Jimmy handed Dipper off to Stan, and Stan cradled the boy in his arms. Dipper looked worse for wear. His clothes were torn up and there was even blood on them. Ford could spot what he hoped was only a skin-deep wound, and it looked infected. Probably was the source of the fever.

“H-his bed’s in the attic,” Stan said. “I’ll take him up there and - and get what he needs. F-Ford, put on a pot of coffee.”

“For Dipper?” Ford asked, raising an eyebrow.

“For Jimmy, you dumbass,” Stan said, but he sounded too distracted to really have any bite to the insult.

Ford attributed it to the sheer relief that Dipper was alive.

Ford made the pot of coffee, but he didn’t fix Jimmy a mug. The biker was a grown man, he could do it himself. He didn’t care that he had just come in from outside. The Apocalypse was his Mephistopheles-given punishment. Jimmy Snakes deserved it.

Jimmy sat down at the kitchen table and stayed there. Not moving. Just stared at Ford and waited. Ford glared back at him and crossed his arms. He was not budging from his decision to make Jimmy get it himself when it was done.

When Stan came down to get the med kit, medicine, and food for Dipper, the coffee had finished brewing and he saw that they were having a stand-off.

“Holy Moses,” Stan muttered. He paused in getting what Dipper needed just long enough to make Jimmy’s coffee cup the way he liked it, then placed it in front of Jimmy.

Ford’s eyes widened as he watched Stan gently turn Jimmy’s head towards him and then kissed him.

Ford just stared at Jimmy as Stan then left with the things Dipper needed.

Jimmy had the biggest smirk on his face.

Ford felt like he understood Stan even less than he did before.


	10. Chapter 10

Mabel woke up that morning, expecting it to be another day of pining for her brother.

But her eyes fluttered open, and at first she wasn’t sure what to make of what she was seeing.

Grunkle Stan was sitting on the edge of Dipper’s bed, adjusting a wet cloth on the forehead of the person laying on the bed. A little groan came from the figure.

Mabel rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and sat up abruptly.

“Dipper!”

That woke up Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica, and Mabel launched herself off the bed and hurried to the other side of the room.

“M-Mabel?” Dipper said, turning his head to look at her.

“You’re alive! Oh my gosh, you’re really here! Grunkle Stan, you found him!”

“Heh. Jimmy found him, actually. I know you’re excited, sweetie, but Dipper’s got a fever, so you might want to tone it down a little.”

Mabel nodded rapidly, understanding.

Dipper lifted his hand, and Mabel took it into her own and squeezed it tightly. It would have to take the place of a hug for now.

“Are you okay?” Dipper asked.

“Am _I_ okay? Are _you_ okay? What happened?”

Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica were fully awake now and were gathering around the bed, though they stayed back enough so that Dipper could have breathing room.

“Well, you know why I ran off, but after that, I kinda got turned around in the forest. And I didn’t have the journal, so I tried to find a place that looked familiar. Then I ran into Jeff and the other gnomes, and they gave me some directions. But then … everything started to change. The Rift must’ve broken, I guess, or Bill figured out another way. After that, it was a matter of not getting eaten or worse. And then I bumped into Jimmy….”

Dipper made a face as he said the last part, which was far more mumbled than the rest of it.

“He’s still a jerk, by the way,” Dipper added on.

“He’s not that bad,” Stan said, almost absentmindedly, as he worked on changing Dipper’s bandage.

Mabel frowned, and both she and Dipper looked up at Stan with worried expressions.

“I’m gonna see what I can scrounge up for you kids for breakfast. I’ll be right back.

“Did something happen between them while I’ve been asleep?” Mabel asked.

“I was about to ask you if something had happened while I was gone,” Dipper said, frowning deeper.

“Did he hurt you?” Mabel asked.

Dipper didn’t make eye contact with her. He seemed to be thinking about his answer.

“He did, didn’t he?” Mabel said, her grip on Dipper’s hand tightening.

“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Dipper said. “I mean, I did start that fight…. And some of this is just from him manhandling me while we ran away from monsters. So it wasn’t …all on purpose.”

“Dipper, you should tell Stan if he hurt you on purpose for any reason! I don’t care why it happened!”

“Yeah!” Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica all said together.

Dipper turned his head to see them. He hadn’t noticed them before. Probably because he had been a bit too groggy.

“Oh, hey Pacifica, Candy, Grenda.” Dipper said. Looking back at Mabel, he sighed. “I wish it was that easy, Mabel. But … I think Stan’s right. I think we actually need his sorry butt here.”

“What do you mean?” Mabel asked, her frown deepening.

“I mean that I saw his whole body get mangled and he was able to regenerate and survive it like it was nothing. If anyone’s gonna be able to leave the Shack and come back in one piece, it’s gonna be him. If we need food or anything else, he’s gonna be the one able to do it. And … and I can’t really remember how, but he managed to get passed the barrier. Even though Great-Uncle Ford said he shouldn’t be able to….”

“Wait, so this Jimmy guy is one of those monsters?” Pacifica asked.

“Yeah, kind of,” Mabel said. “He’s Grunkle Stan’s -”

“We’re not allowed to say, Mabel, remember?”

“But Dipper - !”

“No, Mabel.”

“But what if they promised to keep it a secret too? Can’t they know as long as they don’t tell anybody else they know?”

“Don’t let them know what?” came Ford’s voice from the doorway.

Mabel jumped, startled. Dipper was too sick to have a reaction like that.

“Morning, Dr. Pines,” Pacifica, Candy, and Grenda said in unison.

“Stan told me that you were awake, Dipper,” Ford said, staying in the doorway for the moment.

“Just so you know, I can barely see you from this angle,” Dipper said. He was not sitting up for this.

Ford took a few steps into the room, just enough so that Dipper wouldn’t have to strain his neck or eyes to see him.

Mabel turned her head away from him. Ford took a deep breath.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you are alive and safe here in the Shack, Dipper. And there’s truly no words to describe how sorry I am for upsetting you. I never meant to make you feel that way. I’m sorry for betraying your trust and for using the R-word, and I understand if you don’t want to forgive me just yet. And, Mabel, I’m sorry I made it look and sound like I didn’t care I had hurt Dipper and that he was gone. I had wanted to prevent this Weirdmageddon from happening, and from an objective position, that seemed like the thing to focus on, especially when it hurt too much to look at myself and see how I had hurt those closest to me. But I was just as thoughtless about how you felt as I had about how Dipper would feel if I excluded him from adventuring, and ultimately, my thoughtlessness is exactly what led to all of this happening. For all of that, I’m so, so sorry.”

Ford let them process it and let it hang in the air. The non-Pines in the room just stood there awkwardly, not really understanding what was going on, especially involving his apology to Dipper.

Dipper stared at Ford, and Mabel still refused to look at him.

“I forgive you,” Dipper said. Mabel turned her head enough to look at Dipper.

“You do?” both she and Ford asked.

“I get it. You’ve been gone for 30 years. You didn’t know any better. And … and you’ve bothered to apologize and knowing you and the journals you wrote, I feel like I can trust you to want to learn to be better about that. Which is more than what I can say for other people, back home…. So, because of that, I forgive you.”

“Well, if Dipper’s gonna forgive you, I guess I will too,” Mabel said, turning her head and smiling at Ford.

Ford stared at the two children, emotion welling up in his chest.

He wasn’t quite sure why he was getting this emotional about it, but he had been genuinely afraid that they both would hate him forever. And there was a big part of Ford who believed that they would have been in the right to do so.

“Thank you,” he managed to say, in awe of their ability to forgive.

He didn’t think he’d have done it, if he was in their place.

Ford turned, about to head downstairs, but then he stopped himself.

“Oh, um… . One more thing, children.”

“Yes?” Dipper said at the same time Mabel said “Yeah?”

“I’m not the … only one who was unaware of Stan’s, um … apparent … deviation from typical sexual habits, was I?”

“… Is that your weird way of asking if Grunkle Stan’s gay?” Mabel asked.

“He’s not gay,” Dipper said flatly, moving his hand to adjust the wet cloth on his forehead.

“But he and Jimmy -”

“He _says_ he’s not _gay_ ,” Dipper repeated, giving Ford a look. Ford was at a loss as to what it was trying to communicate to him.

“Wait, Stan and Jimmy were what?” Mabel asked, fully turning her body towards Ford.

“Uh….. Well…..”

Ford wasn’t quite sure how to tell them that Jimmy was making Soos very uncomfortable and Wendy look like she was going to blow a fuse by snaking his arm around Stan’s waist and bothering him while he made the food and clearly trying to rekindle something.

Ford wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to know exactly what he was trying to rekindle, but Ford was hoping it did not involve sex.

He figured he was wrong, but he was still hoping for it.


	11. Chapter 11

After Jimmy brought Dipper back home, it was like the last 36 years hadn’t even happened.

Jimmy’s arm found its way around Stan’s waist, and Stan didn’t say a word about it.

Stan ignored the raised eyebrows and the questioning looks and Ford’s attempts to open his mouth and say something.

Stan blushed at the kitten nickname like he was nineteen again, and he said nothing when Jimmy slipped his arm around his shoulders as the group as a whole talked about what they were going to do, how they were doing on food and supplies, if they were going to do another run outside to see if there was anyone else alive, if they could afford to save anyone else with their resources.

Stan pretended he didn’t notice Soos’s extremely uncomfortable expression or Soos staring at him and Jimmy for too long. Stan pretended he didn’t notice Wendy’s mood, pretended he didn’t know why she was angry and eager to get into a fight.

Stan only allowed himself to think about it as he stared at the ceiling of his bedroom. It was Soos’s turn to be look-out, and it had been a long time since the last time Stan had shared his bed.

Never in a million years had he ever expected to share it with Jimmy once again.

He wondered if Jimmy actually needed to sleep, or if this was about something….

He remembered long bike rides, arms tightly gripping onto Jimmy’s waist, learning how to ride, trying on the jacket Jimmy wanted him to wear. He remembered for once in his life not having to pay for anything out of his own pocket. He remembered Jimmy having his back whenever Stan somehow got into a fight.

He remembered being protected from everything except for Jimmy’s own temper.

And at 19, it had felt so much better than being homeless and alone.

Now … .

Stan focused on his breathing, knowing he should get to sleep while he could.

He closed his eyes and moved onto his side. He felt Jimmy adjust his arm around Stan, forming what felt like a barrier between Stan and the rest of the world.

Rational thought told Stan he had no business feeling safe in it.

It had been a little less than forty years ago, but Stan still had a hard time actually blaming Jimmy for any of it.

“Having trouble sleeping, kitten?” Jimmy asked softly.

He only spoke softly when he wanted something.

“It’s the Apocalypse. Kinda hard to sleep during the Apocalypse. And Dipper’s fever’s being stubborn.”

Stan had put Ford on Fever Duty to get him to just leave him alone.

“Terror twin’s tough. He’ll come through,” Jimmy said.

“Will you please stop calling him that?”

“No. Besides, after the incident with the unicorn, I think he’s earned it.”

“What?”

“Spitfire’s taking care of it.”

That did not answer any of his questions, but Stan let it go. Prying too much into something Jimmy didn’t want to talk about wasn’t a good idea.

“It’ll be fine,” Jimmy said. “I’m here to protect you and your family, remember?”

Stan swallowed hard.

“Yeah. And you remember the agreement, right? Every part of it?”

“Every part.”

If Jimmy hurt one hair on Dipper or Mabel, he’d have to say goodbye to any help Stan was willing to give.

If Jimmy wanted to hurt someone, it would have to be Stan and only Stan.

That was a sacrifice Stan was willing to make for the kids. And for Ford and Soos and Wendy.


	12. Chapter 12

Dipper’s head still hurt, but he made himself get out of bed after the third day anyway. He was tired of laying there, and his clothes were wet and sweaty. Even he didn’t want to wear them anymore.

The sound of Dipper’s footsteps were different from when he was wearing his sneakers or just his socks, so he wasn’t entirely surprised that there was a tense feel to the air and weapons at the ready in people’s hands.

When they saw it was just Dipper, they immediately relaxed.

“Dipper, what’re you doing up? You still have a fever,” Stan said, getting up from his seat and looking like he was about to march him right back up the stairs.

“Do you have any idea how boring it is to stare at the ceiling all day?” Dipper asked, crossing his arms. “And I feel better.”

“Whoa, cool outfit, Dipper! You look good!” Pacifica said, looking up from the card game she was playing with Mabel, Candy, and Grenda.

Dipper was wearing the only other outfit he had that felt remotely appropriate for an apocalypse scenario: the biker outfit Mephistopheles had let him keep. They actually did have the bike he had used to race Jimmy in the backyard, and the biker jacket and boots and pants had been stuffed into the back of his and Mabel’s closet. The idea had been that they’d never look at it again, but things happen.

“Oh. Thanks,” Dipper said, a little taken aback and surprised that anyone had anything good to say about it.

He could see that Mabel was frowning, and he wished he could help it, but he really didn’t have any other clothes aside from that mini-version of Stan’s suit and what he had been using for pajamas.

The girls were wearing some of Mabel’s sweaters, which was certainly a marked improvement over the torn clothes and rags that he had seen when he and Jimmy first came back.

Stan walked into the other room where most of the adults seemed to be. Dipper went to perch near the girls, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Spitfire.

“Oh, hey, man,” Dipper said.

“Terror twin -”

“It’s Dipper,”

“Oh, sorry, Dipper, the animal hide has been treated. I was wondering if there was anything specific you wanted me to turn it into.”

“… You mean that uni-?”

Spitfire nodded.

“Oh. Uh…. Why’re you asking me? Isn’t Jimmy your boss? Or … gang leader or something?”

“He is, but from how Jimmy told it, it was your kill, so, I figured -”

“Oh. Okay. Um…. What can you make from it?”

“Well, when I’m not biking, I make lots of things out of leather. Bags, belts, jackets, pants, gloves, the works. With how much that unicorn weighed, I can definitely get an adult jacket and a pair of gloves out of it, though depending on what you want, perhaps not much else.”

Dipper looked over at Mabel. She didn’t seem to be listening to what they were talking about, not now that Candy seemed to be beating them at poker.

“What’s left after a child’s jacket?” Dipper asked without turning his head.

Spitfire followed where Dipper was looking.

“Awwww,” Spitfire said. Dipper blushed a little.

“What?”

“You want one for your sister. That’s so sweet. I remember making jackets for my sister.”

“So what would be left?”

Spitfire eyeballed Mabel to get a guesstimate at what her measurements would be, then did the math in his head.

“I’d say there’d definitely be enough for some gloves, maybe a belt or two.”

The wheels were turning in Dipper’s head.

“In that case, get Great-Uncle Ford’s hand measurements for gloves, Mabel gets a jacket, and Grunkle Stan … I dunno, a belt?”

“You got it, Dipper Man.”

Spitfire held out his hand, and Dipper didn’t hesitate to shake it this time.

“Nice threads, by the way,” Spitfire said. “Really great craftsmanship for your jacket and boots. Where’d you get ‘em?”

“These? Ah, I guess you could say Jimmy gave ‘em to me.” Sort of. Jimmy had given him the magic powers that gave him the clothes, at any rate.

“You thinkin’ about becoming a biker too?”

Dipper froze at the question. He fought the swelling disgust at being compared to Jimmy in the slightest, but he thought about it rationally. Spitfire seemed okay. And Grunkle Stan had been a biker. And the local bikers weren’t bad people. It was just Jimmy who was an asshole.

“Well, riding the bike was fun, sorta. Before I had that accident and broke my leg.”

“Accidents happen. But you don’t improve unless you get right back onto the horse, so to speak.”

Spitfire laughed a little, then patted Dipper on the shoulder and left to start working on the jacket, gloves, and belt.

Ford, Stan, and Jimmy had been getting into a heated argument about what they should do.

“We can’t just stay here holed up in the Shack! We have to stand up to Bill before he takes over the entire world! He can’t be allowed to leave Gravity Falls!”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that. The important thing is that we all stay out of harm’s way,” Jimmy growled.

“And what’s that supposed to mean? ‘We don’t have to worry’? Of course we have to worry! Do you have any idea the damage that Bill could cause!?” Ford moved his hand to gesture emphatically, but then all of a sudden he felt someone grab onto his hand and place a ruler against his palm.

Ford turned his head, instinctively pulling his hand away. But Spitfire’s grip was stronger and he held it in place while he took the measurements.

Ford just stared at the man, too taken aback to think of something to say.

“Spitfire, what the hell are you doing?” Stan said, a bit glad they had a distraction. Both Ford and Jimmy were getting angry, and Stan didn’t need this crap.

“Measurements. Oh! That’s different.”

Ford turned red and pulled his hand away from Spitfire more successfully.

“ _Why_?” Ford asked, hiding his fingers in his armpits.

“Little man says you need gloves,” Spitfire said.

“Spitfire’s a tanner/leather-worker,” Stan offered as an explanation. “But where’d you find animal hide for that?”

“Jimmy and Dipper brought that weird horse with them.”

“What weird horse?” Stan asked. He didn’t remember seeing a weird horse.

“It had that thing sticking out of its head,” Spitfire said, using the ruler to demonstrate.

Ford’s eyes widened, scandalized. He turned his head towards Jimmy.

“You killed a unicorn!? Do you have any idea how bad an idea that is!? Unicorns are jerks, but their lives are essential to their ecosystem!”

Jimmy snorted, then started to laugh. It wasn’t a pleasant laugh, and it made Stan shiver a bit. It just made Ford angrier.

“And not only that, it’s seriously bad luck! If anything gets any worse than right now, it’ll be all your fault!”

Silence fell over the Shack, and Ford became conscious of everyone’s eyes being on him, even from the other room.

“I wasn’t the one who killed the unicorn,” Jimmy said, still laughing. “Its meat tasted good, though.”

“You - !?”

Ford paled considerably, and he pushed himself away from the table and backed himself up against the wall.

“W-why would you do that!? You’re demonic, you don’t even need to eat!”

“It was either that or let it go to waste. And like you said, it’s not exactly a good idea for just anybody to be killing and eating unicorns.”

Jimmy was smirking. It was clear he found Ford’s reaction to be endlessly amusing.

“I’ll say this, though. I’ve never felt better.”

Ford’s eyes were fearful, and it was making Stan uneasy. Moreso than he already felt.

“I don’t get it. Why’s a dead unicorn such a big deal?” Stan asked. Though he remembered the stories he and Ford would read together under the covers. He remembered the books Ford read aloud to him in the Stan-O-War and how they had to hide the “girly” books from their dad. He knew why it was bad in fiction. But this was real life.

“Unicorns’ bodies are full of incredibly powerful magic and each part of them have different magical properties. Ultimately, the powers and riches of a unicorn have to be given over willingly. There’s no way you got permission to murder the unicorn, and no matter what magical properties you are able to use to your advantage now, the ecosystem surrounding the unicorn will turn against you!”

“As far as I can tell, its ecosystem got wrecked beforehand,” Jimmy said, pointing to what was happening outside the window.

“But - !” Ford started, but then Jimmy slipped his arm around Stan’s shoulders.

“Wait, isn’t the Shack protected by unicorn hair?” Stan said.

Ford paused, his eyes widening.

Jimmy’s smirk widened.

“Yup.”

“So … when you say Bill isn’t going anywhere -” Stan started.

“I mean the perimeter of the city has unicorn hair keeping him in with us,” Jimmy said. “It was the Terror Twin’s idea and part of the reason we took so long.”

“It -” Dipper spoke up. Ford turned to see that the five children were now in the kitchen doorway. “It wasn’t like she was using it anymore.”

“So after he cut the hair off, I skinned the bitch, then took care of what was left. I’ve got the horn in my bag in case that’s useful at all,” Jimmy said. “So Bill’s stuck here in town, and we’re inside the Shack. I see no reason to leave unless it’s to get materials or food.”

Ford wanted to keep arguing. But he couldn’t think of anything to counterpoint what Jimmy said right away, so in the end, he just let out a frustrated yell, then stormed out of the room. Spitfire left the room, muttering about how he was going to make six-fingered gloves and make sure they were comfortable.


	13. Chapter 13

“Soos, Jimmy, and I are going out to see what we can scrounge up for food. Considering the electricity is basically completely gone, we no longer have quite a few options for Dipper’s food, so hopefully the grocery store still has those pudding cups or something,” Stan said.

Dipper kept his head down, his face red from embarrassment. Mabel rubbed his back a little bit.

“Ford, you’re in charge while we’re gone,” Stan continued. “Wendy, you’re second-in-command. Keep Ford from doing anything stupid.”

“Yes, sir!” Wendy said, though she was glaring in Jimmy’s direction.

Soos looked nervous, but no one volunteered to take his place. And Dipper and Mabel didn’t think Soos would let anyone switch places with him. If it was a choice between sticking by Stan’s side or staying in the Shack, he’d always pick Stan. The twins were sure of it.

The three went out into the nightmare outside, and Stan closed the door shut behind them.

Ford cleared his throat.

“All right, now that they’re gone, who wants to come up with a plan to take Bill out for good? We clearly can’t stay in here forever, especially since we’ll run out of food, and I refuse to accept the idea of letting anyone starve to death.”

Spitfire was sitting at the kitchen table as they talked and argued with each other about what was and wasn’t possible. He had taken it upon himself to make sure that Mabel’s jacket was cute, because just because it was the Apocalypse didn’t mean that anyone had to be dressed in ugly clothes if they could help it. And Mabel was a cute little girl who deserved cute little clothes.

Ford was confident in his ability to take out Bill. Dipper believed in Ford, and Mabel wanted to, too.

But they were really the only ones.

“As much as I’m all for taking that fucker out, Dr. Pines - oops, sorry, Mabel - I’m going to need more than your notes on the idea that this … sci-fi gun is gonna work. And what happens if you miss?” Wendy said.

“And what’s the back-up plan?” Blubs asked, and Ford didn’t really have one.

Everyone had something to say or some concern, and no one was able to come to an agreement, and some people didn’t even trust Ford.

“What’s your name again, anyway?”

“Stanford Pines.”

“… But Mr. Mystery is Stanford Pines.”

“Dammit, Stan.”

Despite Ford’s efforts to get them to understand that it was Stan who had faked his death and pretended to be Ford, the other adults weren’t convinced, no matter how much Mabel, Dipper, and Wendy supported the claim.

It was enough to drive Ford crazy.

The fighting didn’t end until the front door opened with a sudden “BANG!” It startled everyone, and Wendy and Ford both whipped their respective weapons out and hurried into the living room.

Stan threw his body against the door hard, then locked the door.

Smoke was radiating from Jimmy’s glowing red eyes, and Soos was backing away from him.

“YOU IDIOT, YOU ALMOST GOT US - !”

“It’s not his fault!” Stan said hurriedly.

Jimmy was advancing on Soos, fists tight and body language extremely threatening. 

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I really am, I didn’t mean to make all that noise and get their attention, I - !” Soos rambled, his back hitting the wall.

“Jimmy, that’s enough!” Stan said, grabbing Jimmy’s arm.

What happened next happened too fast for Ford - or Wendy - to do anything about it.

Jimmy pulled his arm out of Stan’s grip, then threw his arm back, back-handing Stan. His knuckles made contact with Stan’s temple, and the force of the hit made Stan collide with the wall on his right.

He hit the wall, then slumped to the ground, unconscious. Ford’s eyes were wide as he spotted blood on the wall.

_The meat of a unicorn embues the consumer with incredible strength and resistance to magic, but the cost outweighs the benefits._

“STAN!”

Ford ran over to his brother. He checked his pulse and breathing before anything else, his brain threatening to screech to a halt with only the thought that Stan looked dead rolling around in his head.

He didn’t think to tell the children to stay back. He had to trust that the others would think to look after them and keep them away from Jimmy as he checked Stan over. 

“Shit,” Jimmy spat out, the anger from before having left him now.

But there was still a pulse. He was still breathing.

Stan was still alive.

The side of his head where Jimmy had hit him was already bruising, and he was definitely bleeding on the side that had hit the wall, however.

“W-wendy, get the first aid kit! Now!” Ford ordered.

He heard Wendy’s footsteps as she ran to go get it. He also heard two other sets of footsteps coming closer. Ford looked up to see Dipper grabbing Soos’s hand and pulling him away from Jimmy and Mabel running right up to Jimmy and pounding her little fists on him. They clearly had no effect, but Ford was suddenly seized by even more fear.

“You big bully! Jerk face! Piece of dog poo!”

“ _Mabel_!” Dipper exclaimed, grabbing her and pulling her away by the sweater.

Ford didn’t know what to do. He watched as Dipper turned himself into a human shield for Mabel and an in-shock Soos. Why wasn’t anyone else trying to help?

Wendy showed up with the first aid kit and handed it to Ford. She had her ax at the ready, but no one made any sudden moves.

“Wendy, help me get Stan to the couch.”

“Will do, Dr. Pines.”

After they got him to the couch, Ford wrapped bandages around Stan’s head after disinfecting the wound and determining exactly what the damage was. In the middle of wrapping it up, Stan started to moan and wake back up.

“Wha-what happened?” Stan asked, trying to sit up, but Ford wouldn’t let him.

Ford opened his mouth to answer, but then Stan asked another question.

“And why does Multibear look like he has adopted Soos and the kids and is gonna rip off the head of whoever gets too close?”

Ford turned his head and saw that indeed, the children and Soos weren’t entirely relying on Dipper for protection. Multibear was hovering over them, teeth bared, and eyes glaring daggers as he practically dared Jimmy Snakes to take another step towards any of them.

Jimmy, however, actually looked his age for once in how he held himself; the fight had completely deflated out of him, and he had slumped into a sitting position on the arm of a chair. Had Ford not just seen the man knock his brother unconscious, he might not have believed he had a lot of strength if he only had this image of him to judge from.

Ford refused to feel bad for him. This was his fault, and if he decided to finally feel bad for being an asshole, then good. But that was the absolute least he could do.

Ford looked back at Soos for a moment. It looked like the man was going to start crying at any moment. His eyes weren’t on Jimmy or anyone else. Just on Stan.

Ford didn’t need a mind-reading machine to know just how badly Soos felt over Stan getting hurt because he was trying to protect him from Jimmy.

This Apocalypse needed to end. Now.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References to events that are implied to have been rape are mentioned in this chapter.

Ford couldn’t understand why things were going as back to normal as they could be. He just didn’t understand.

“So what happened after I got knocked out?” Stan asked.

“Mabel yelled at Jimmy, Dipper then got Soos and Mabel out of danger, and Multibear became their personal guard bear,” Wendy explained.

A bit of panic went through Stan - and Ford could see it - but Stan stayed on the couch.

“And?”

Wendy sighed. “And nothing. Jimmy didn’t do anything else, and Dr. Pines and I patched you up. That’s all that happened.”

Stan relaxed at that.

“Oh. Well, okay then. Did the food we dragged in get taken care of?”

“I’ll get right on that,” Wendy said, her ferocity from before dying down.

Ford hadn’t seen the girl look that down since she had to accept that she couldn’t find her family.

Ford waited for Stan to say something else.

“Hey, Jimmy?” Stan said, turning around to look at the biker.

“Hm?”

Jimmy looked up from the carpet and at Stan, arms crossed.

“You did good. I, uh, wasn’t gonna mention it until later, but I managed to scrounge up some whiskey. It’s your favorite, unless that changed in the last 30 odd years.”

“What!?”

The children had been removed from the room a little while ago, which Ford was thankful for, because he genuinely wouldn’t know how to handle any of this if he had to be worried about what this whole situation was teaching those kids.

He didn’t even know how to handle it as it was.

Jimmy and Stan acted like he wasn’t even there. Jimmy barely moved, though his face seemed to change just a bit. The curve of his mouth moved slightly upward. Slowly, Jimmy stood up and patted Stan on the shoulder.

“Thanks, kitten.”

Jimmy then went over to where the scrounged up rations had been left, dug the whiskey bottle out, then headed in the direction of Stan’s bedroom.

Where Ford had no choice but to acknowledge was where the demonic asshole was sleeping. Did occupation demons even sleep!?

Stan had a little fond smile on his face that was completely beyond Ford’s understanding.

“What the hell was that about!?” Ford asked.

Stan finally looked at him, confusion on his face.

“Stanley, he hit you so hard you lost consciousness! Why - why are you _smiling_ and saying he ‘did good’!? And - _rewarding_ him!?”

“Will you stop shouting?” Stan asked, giving Ford a judgmental look.

“But Stanley - ! He hurt you!”

Stan sighed, then pulled out a folded-up piece of paper from his jacket. Ford recognized it as the agreement he and Jimmy had made before the Rift broke. Stan handed it to Ford, and Ford took it gingerly.

The piece of paper was much more worn now, but it wasn’t exactly fragile. Ford read it carefully; he felt all the blood leave his face as he did so.

It guaranteed Dipper, Mabel, Soos, Wendy, and Ford himself would remain unharmed. And at the bottom, there was additional clauses ensuring Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica would be safe as well. Unharmed. Not a single scratch or bruise as the result of Jimmy’s hand or any weapons.

In exchange for their protection. He would protect them, and the Pines family would make sure Jimmy didn’t get captured and tortured for all eternity.

But Stan wasn’t included in any of that protection.

Stan wasn’t protected from Jimmy under this agreement.

Ford looked up from the piece of paper, his heart breaking.

Stan was smiling at him.

“Jimmy was always an angry guy. Hell, when I first met him, he was angry. Not at me, though. That anger is really cool to watch when it’s lookin’ after you. And even before he started gettin’ angry at me, he was still pretty firm and rough, y’know?”

Ford chose to believe that meant the grip on Stan’s wrists or waist, how Jimmy would push him ahead in line. Stuff like that.

“He’s a rough-around-the-edges kind of guy. I knew what I was getting into when I started hanging around him, and I know what I’m getting into now. And I know it’s asking far too much for him to keep his temper in check all the time. He needs some kind of punching bag.”

“Then why can’t he have a real punching bag!? Or just - just shove him out of the Shack and let him beat up some monsters until he calms the hell down!? Stan, why - why do _you_ have to be the one to get hurt?”

Stan just shrugged, and it killed Ford on the inside.

“It’s just how it’s always been. And hey, it actually could be worse. Jimmy isn’t the worst ex-boyfriend that could’ve come back into my life,” Stan said, speaking in a lower voice now. Ford had gotten the memo that Stan wasn’t out of the closet, but what with Jimmy being physically affectionate in front of everyone, it wasn’t a secret anymore. It didn’t keep Stan from stumbling over the word ‘boyfriend.’ “Jimmy at least knows how to respect the word ‘no’.”

The sentence hit Ford like a truck. His stomach felt like it had completely left him, and emotion weld up in his chest.

It was clear from Stan’s face that he meant it to be uplifting somehow, but Stan soon frowned as he watched Ford.

Ford knew he wasn’t crying, but he had a feeling he looked like he was about to start.

He couldn’t imagine thinking like Stanley was thinking right now. Even after everything with Bill, Ford had never, ever felt like … that was just how things were. He had felt betrayed, angry. He had felt used and foolish.

He couldn’t imagine responding to that like Stanley was.

“What _happened_ to you while we were apart?” Ford asked, his voice cracking a little.

“What do you mean?” Stan asked.

“I remember when the worst thing a relationship had done to you was Carla breaking up with you to go out with a hippie. I remember when the worst you came out of a relationship was lipstick on your cheek and tears you refused to cry. That’s a big jump away from - away from bruises and getting knocked out and - !”

And Ford couldn’t say what Stanley had implied about the worse ex-boyfriends. It hurt too much to even think that his brother, who had always protected him and beat up the bullies, could have been - could have been - !

“Hey,” Stan said softly, and Ford found himself wrapped in Stanley’s arms and pulled into a comforting hug. Like Stan used to do to cheer him up from bad dreams when they were children. Despite being afraid of heights, Stan braved the top bunk instead of making Ford climb down in the dark and risk falling.

“It’s okay,” Stan said, and Ford knew it was a lie, but one Stan wholeheartedly believed. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”

Ford didn’t believe him.

Compulsive lying was in their genetic code.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is implied sexual content in this chapter.

Ford couldn’t sleep, so he chose to be the lookout. But he wasn’t the only one.

Soos was laying on his back on the couch now that Stan had gone to his room. (Where Jimmy was….) He was supposed to be sleeping, but Ford could see from here that his eyes were open.

He just stared at the ceiling, and Ford tried not to notice how the man was silently crying.

Soos couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened earlier that day. How scared he had been. How Jimmy’s eyes burned and Soos swore he could see the face of the Devil himself in those eyes.

Soos had been raised Catholic. He believed in Heaven and Purgatory and Hell. He believed the Virgin Mary had really been born without sin and had had Jesus Christ as a virgin woman. He went to church with Abuelita every other Sunday, though he knew he should probably be going every Sunday. But he never missed a Holy Day of Obligation if he could help it. He went to confession, though sometimes the priest berated him for lying. (“But I really did eat a man that was entirely made out of candy!”)

Soos had been so afraid, thought that Jimmy was going to curse him or something. In those moments he had begged for forgiveness, he had prayed to God to save him.

If he had thought God would have put Mr. Pines in danger for his sake, he never would have done it.

He couldn’t shake the image of Stan laying there on the floor, half slumped against the wall. His glasses askew and blood tainting the color of his skin and hair.

And Soos had just stood there.

He hadn’t tried to fight back at all.

He hadn’t even tried to protect Dipper and Mabel when they had come to his rescue.

Dipper had grabbed his hand and pulled him away, and all Soos could do was stare at Mr. Pines as Dr. Pines looked him over.

Soos hadn’t quite known what to make of Dr. Pines. But vaguely, in his shock and fear, Soos registered that Dr. Pines really did love his brother.

Soos did nothing as Dipper made himself into a tiny shield to protect not just him, but Mabel too. Soos couldn’t make himself do anything as Multibear made his way over to them and hovered over them like they were his children.

Soos had just been a big, useless lump during the whole thing, and he had never felt more terrible.

Soos, however, wasn’t the only one feeling useless. Not only did Ford feel at a loss as to how to help Stan (outside of ending the apocalypse, but it was becoming clearer to Ford that that wouldn’t solve all their problems), but Dipper and Mabel and Wendy weren’t feeling all that useful either.

Wendy was half-asleep, leaning against a wall in the kitchen. She didn’t want the sleeping bag she had been using right then. She let the gnomes curl up in it together for the night. Her eyes were half-lidded, and Stan’s rum bottle had the cap off and was sitting next to her. Snot dripped from her nose, and her eyes were red.

Sure, she did everything she could to avoid working hard. But the Pines family meant so much to her. They were like a second family…. And no matter how strong she was, no matter what her apocalypse training had taught her, there was nothing she could do to fix this.

She felt empty and hollow now that there was no anger to fill her.

When Ford had entered the kitchen, he had taken the bottle and put the cap back on, then put the bottle in a higher cabinet than it had been in previously. Only Chutzpar and Multibear were actually that tall to reach it without much effort now.

“It’s not your fault, Wendy,” Ford whispered.

Wendy’s face contorted, and Ford found himself being pulled into her arms as she clung to him tightly, burrowing her face into his sweater.

He returned the hug as he felt his sweater getting wet.

At some point, Soos entered the kitchen as well and joined in on the hug. Ford moved an arm around enough so that he could hold onto Soos as well.

Up in the attic, neither Dipper nor Mabel could sleep. But Dipper had his back turned to Mabel and the other girls, eyes staring at the wall. He could hear Mabel get up and leave the room, though, and that’s when he sat up and looked around the room.

Dipper took the opportunity to go see if Spitfire was either awake or happened to be done with the jacket, gloves, and belt. He slipped out of bed, then went down the stairs, careful not to wake anyone else up.

Mabel didn’t go into the kitchen. Instead, she headed for Stan’s room.

‘Just to check in on him. Like he does for us,’ Mabel thought.

Dipper also didn’t go into the kitchen, but he didn’t go in the same direction as Mabel. He knew Spitfire was sleeping in the gift shop. So he simply went right in that direction, tugging his biker jacket closer around him.

Mabel reached out for the doorknob, then hesitated and pressed her ear to the door. She heard muffled voices. She furrowed her eyebrows. Was . . who was in there with Stan?

Dipper found Spitfire easily enough, and he smiled to himself as he saw that Mabel’s jacket seemed to be finished. He wondered why Spitfire had chosen to put a shooting star on the back, but he supposed the man had just copied what had been on Mabel’s sweater for the past few days. Maybe he had seen the back of Dipper’s own jacket and felt like he’d make it a theme.

Mabel pushed the door open a crack. She caught sight of Grunkle Stan pulling his undershirt off. But he slept in that…. Why - ?

Dipper picked up the gloves and looked them over. He slipped his hand inside, just to see if there was anything missing from the inside, then took his hand out. It obviously didn’t fit Dipper’s hand, since his was much smaller and didn’t have six fingers, but it seemed to be ready.

Mabel saw too much of Jimmy for her liking, and she pulled the door shut. It made too much noise as she did so.

“What was that?” Stan asked.

Mabel ran away from the door, her little feet making far too much noise as she retreated back up the stairs to the attic.

The belt still seemed to need some work, but that was fine. Dipper went ahead and took the jacket and gloves, then headed back into the house.

Ford heard the slam of the door, then disentangled himself from the hug to go investigate. Wendy and Soos wiped their eyes and followed.

They ended up meeting Stan in the hall, Stan with his suit jacket slipped on but no shirt underneath.

“What happened?” Ford and Stan asked in unison, then gave each other matching concerned looks.

They heard another slam of a door, then looked up the stairs leading to the attic.

Another set of footsteps - the thunk of boots on wood - and Dipper rounded the corner. He stared at them for a moment, then tilted his head.

“What’re all of you doing up? I thought Great-Uncle Ford was doing lookout tonight,” Dipper asked.

“What’re you doing up?” Stan retorted.

Dipper gave Stan a look.

“Need I remind you the definition of insomnia?” Dipper said.

“Back to bed with you,” Stan said, pointing towards the stairs. “Are you the only one up?”

“I heard Mabel leave the room. I think she had to go to the bathroom.”

“Right…. Okay. Off with you.” 

“Grunkle Stan?”

“What?”

“Where’s your shirt?”

“Get on up there already.”

Stan put his hand on Dipper’s shoulder, then pushed him towards the stairs. Dipper took the first couple steps, then paused.

“Oh, right. Here, Great-Uncle Ford.”

Dipper tossed Ford his pair of gloves, then Dipper headed back up the stairs. Ford caught them, and he chose to stare at them and think about what they were made of instead of the reasons Stan could be missing his shirt.

Without a word, Stan went back to his room.

Upstairs, Dipper re-entered their bedroom, holding Mabel’s new jacket in his hands.

He saw her huddled on her bed with the covers over her, and he heard small, soft sobs. Eyebrows furrowed, Dipper tiptoed over Pacifica, Grenda, and Candy to reach her bed and crawled up onto it. He touched what he was pretty sure was her back.

“Mabel?”

Mabel slipped the covers off her head and looked at him.

“Why does Grunkle Stan love Jimmy, Dipper?”

“I dunno. Are we sure he loves him? Maybe it’s just a business arrangement….”

“I - I don’t think so, Dipper.”

Dipper frowned.

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t want to say.”

She knew Dipper hadn’t really gotten the talk yet. All their parents had said was that when a man and a woman get married and share a bed, they have a baby. That’s all Mom and Dad said. Grunkle Stan gave Mabel-in-Dipper’s-body the real talk. Stan thought it was Dipper, though….

Mabel may have made jokes about Dipper’s internet history, but she knew that it was just nerd stuff. Dipper freaked out over the mere suggestion of intimacy. She sometimes just said stuff to be funny.

She knew Dipper wouldn’t understand if she tried to tell him without spelling it out for him, and once she got him to understand, she’d see the lost of innocence that she had felt, the crushed feeling of true love and fairy tale endings crumbling around her, and she didn’t want that for Dipper.

She wanted to protect Dipper, just like he was always protecting her.

“Mabel? What happened?”

“I just don’t want to say, okay?” Mabel said. “I just saw something I shouldn’t have, is all….”

She saw the confusion in his face, and she was thankful he hadn’t clued in.

Dipper held the jacket out to her.

“I got you something. Spitfire helped with it.”

Mabel accepted the jacket. She had a feeling she knew what it was made out of, but she chose not to ask.

She slipped the jacket on. She noticed right away that she would need to knit herself a thinner sweater if she was gonna wear a sweater under it. Or maybe just a T-shirt….

It was like a white version of Dipper’s biker jacket, with extra unicorn hair sewed into the shooting star design and little metal pointy things sticking out of the shoulder pads.

“Thanks, Dipper.”

“No problem,” Dipper said. “If you need anything, just wake me up, okay?”

Mabel nodded. “Same to you. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Dipper and Mabel hugged, then Dipper tiptoed back over to his bed.

Stan spat it out, then wiped his mouth clean and went to brush his teeth before attempting to go to sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

Dipper and Mabel came down the stairs early the next morning, unable to sleep any longer. Mabel couldn’t stop seeing what she had caught a glimpse of when she pushed the door open last night, and Dipper just had his regular insomnia issues.

Mabel wore her new leather jacket and pulled it tightly around her. It wasn’t because she was cold.

Ford, Wendy, and Soos were the only ones awake right then. They were talking in low tones together, but they stopped as the twins entered the room.

“Morning, Mabel and Dipper,” Ford said.

“S’up, dudes?”

“How’d you sleep?”

Dipper just shrugged.

“I had … bad dreams with wrinkly salamis in them.”

All three adults raised an eyebrow, and Dipper gave Mabel a confused look.

But Ford chose to change the subject, since Mabel also did not seem to be offering up any explanations.

“I was talking over a plan to take a shot at Bill. But if it doesn’t work, our only real option is this prophecy I took notes on in my second journal. Now, I’ve certainly worked out who the pine tree, shooting star, this symbol that shows up on Stan’s fez is, six-fingered hand, and the question mark are. And I’m fairly certain Pacifica is the llama because of that sweater Mabel gave her and I’m pretty sure Fiddleford is the glasses and Wendy is the ice bag. But I have no idea who the heart is -”

“It’s definitely Robbie. He’s had the same hoodie with that same heart since the 7th grade.”

“Great! Where is this Robbie?”

“Probably wherever Bill’s been taking the human statues.”

“Ohhhhh dear. Welp, better hope my gun works then.”

Ford closed the journal, then stood up.

“I already have the gun by the door. We’ll need some form of transportation, but should everything go well, Wendy, Soos, and I will return and Bill will be gone.” 

“You’re going just by yourselves?” Mabel said.

“Take us with you!” Dipper said.

“Kids, I - it’s safer for you here in the Shack. I looked at Stan’s deal with Jimmy, and while he’s … frightening and unpleasant, he won’t hurt you.”

“No! That’s not true! He - !” Mabel started, but Dipper then covered her mouth. After a bit of muffled talking, Mabel pushed Dipper’s hand away. “What was that for?”

“Don’t say that so loud!” Dipper whispered. “Jimmy doesn’t sleep!”

“But he did hurt you, Dipper.”

“I never said that.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it?”

Dipper didn’t answer her and wouldn’t look at her face.

Anger flared in Wendy’s eyes again. She got down on one knee and put her hands on Dipper’s shoulders.

“Dipper, if that jackass hurt you, I swear to God I’ll kick his ass, immortality or not.”

“Dipper, my boy, if he hurt you, that means he broke his deal with Stan. We could kick him out of the Shack. But you’ll have to -” Ford started, stepping closer.

But Dipper stepped away from Wendy and Ford, violently shaking his head.

“No! N-no, nothing happened, Jimmy didn’t do anything to me. I just don’t want to stay here, I want to go with you.”

Ford had grown up with liars. Every liar at their tell. He knew his mother’s, he knew Stan’s. He could tell that Dipper was lying.

And it scared him that he was lying. Why would he lie if the truth meant they could already be rid of Jimmy?

“O-okay. You can both come with us. But we still need a vehicle.”

“D-Dipper still has that motorcycle from when he raced Jimmy. Dipper and I can ride that. And Spitfire probably won’t miss his, but there wouldn’t be room for one of you.”

Soos took a deep breath. “Wendy should go with you, then, Dr. Pines.”

“But Soos -” Wendy started, but Soos took her hand into his and squeezed it.

“It doesn’t sit right with me to leave Mr. Pines with that … man. And he’ll be worried about the kids. Someone who knows what’s going on should stay here with him.”

Wendy nodded in understanding, then pulled Soos into a tight hug.

“Stay strong, dude,” Wendy said.

“And I do indeed know how to ride a motorbike, though that was in a dimension where it all ran on plutonium. I would assume this dimension’s will be easier to handle.”

Ford and Wendy didn’t bother with helmets. Dipper still had his helmet, but he gave it to Mabel since she didn’t have one. Mabel insisted he take it, but he kept refusing and wouldn’t take her no for an answer.

Dipper left a note for Spitfire so he wouldn’t be confused where the gloves, jacket, and bike had gone. 

Mabel clung to Dipper, and Wendy held onto Ford. The gun was on Wendy’s back, since it proved to cause too much of an issue with the seating arrangement if it stayed on Ford’s back.

The sounds of the bikes revving up and riding away was what woke Stan. In the time that it took Stan to look like certain things had not happened between him and Jimmy in the night, Dipper, Mabel, Ford, and Wendy had left the Shack in the dust.

Destination: the Fearamid.


	17. Chapter 17

The gun had failed.

Infiltrating the Fearamid had gone terribly wrong, and Ford still wasn’t quite sure how they had managed to escape.

Wendy was a godsend and had somehow managed to learn how to steer an eye-bat, turning 8-Ball into half a statue. Something truly magical was in these new gloves and jacket Ford and Mabel had; nothing could touch Mabel, and Ford could use the gloves as some kind of shield if he did the math right regarding the angles of the blasts.

By some miracle, the four of them somehow managed to lose Bill and were still in one piece.

But there was no way they could go back to the Shack yet. The place was crawling with eye-bats looking for them, and as much as the Shack was protected, Ford didn’t want to return until he had successfully made Gravity Falls a place that was safe without needing to rely on a man like Jimmy Snakes for protection.

But as it was - without the gun and with no Robbie or whoever the pentagram on the prophecy circle - that looked rather bleak. But Ford wasn’t going to give up yet.

Ford talked to Wendy, Dipper, and Mabel about their next plan. They’d have to get Robbie out of the human throne that Bill had manufactured, then figure out who the pentagram was.

“Ugh,” Mabel said.

“We already know who that is,” Dipper sighed. “Gideon Gleeful.”

“Who?”

“Fake child psychic. He’s kind of buddies with Bill,” Dipper said.

“Oh.”

Ford hoped that meant he wasn’t a lost cause. He had been “buddies” with Bill, after all, himself….

“So how’s this circle supposed to work?”

“We make the circle in this specific order and hold each other’s hands. It then creates a surge of power that will defeat Bill. Somehow.”

“Aw man, that blows,” Wendy said.

“That’s not fair!” Dipper said, looking at the circle more closely.

“What do you mean? Holding hands isn’t that ba-”

“Gideon’s is right next to Mabel’s, and he’s been a major creep towards her all summer!” Dipper said. 

Ford faltered. There wouldn’t be any way around it, but this bit of news was giving him an uneasy feeling.

“How old is he?”

“He’s twelve like us, but he tried to kill Dipper when he tried to help me break up with him when we were dating, and he’s tried to steal the Shack more than once, and he succeeded once. We got it back, though,” Mabel explained, pulling her jacket around her tightly. She missed her sweaters, but after what this jacket had protected her from, she wasn’t willing to take it off. “And he’s been in prison since that time, though … is he still in prison?” Mabel asked, turning to look at Dipper.

Dipper shrugged.

Ford didn’t like the idea of Mabel having to hold hands with someone like that, but the fate of the world was at stake.

“Mabel, if it wasn’t necessary for our survival, I’d never ask you to so much as look at him. But this prophecy might be our only shot.”

“I understand, Great-Uncle Ford,” Mabel said, sounding morose. But she forced a smile on her face when she saw Ford’s expression. “It’s just hand-holding. Not like I’ll have to kiss him or anything.” 

A sudden stream of light from a car’s headlights flooded the area where they were camping out.

“Well, whaddya know? It’s Bill Cipher’s four Most Wanted all in one place!”

While Ford did have another gun on him, he followed Wendy’s and the children’s lead and ran for the motorbikes. The revving of multiple cars thrummed in his ears, though the lights from the headlights were making it hard to see.

He hated being old. His eyesight had never been that great, but old age made it worse.

“Wendy, do you know how to drive it?”

“No idea!”

“Then tell me if we’re about to hit something!” 

Meanwhile, Soos was walking behind Jimmy and Stan with his shoulders hunched up as they tried to find Ford, Wendy, and the twins. Stan’s admonishments from earlier were still ringing in his head. “How could you let them go out in that!?”

“It’s getting dark. We should head back to the Shack,” Jimmy said, his voice sounding like gravel.

“I’m not going back without my family!” Stan argued.

“You’re no good to your family or to me dead!” Jimmy snapped back. “Let’s head back before we’re monster chow.”

“We’ve come all this way! They have to be out here somewhere, and if we double-back now, we’ll lose what progress we have already made,” Stan said, his voice taking on more of a pleading tone than before. “I - I know you want to avoid that Bill Cipher guy at all costs, but you can easily take on an eye-bat or whatever they’re called, right? And you got a real good shot in at that freaky head thing with the arm. Please, Jimmy, the kids and my brother, they - !”

Soos wasn’t used to Stan looking this vulnerable. Mr. Pines never backed down, especially not when it came to defending his family. But the look on Stan’s face made it seem almost like Stan would cave if Jimmy insisted on it.

Soos didn’t like it.

“I gotta find ‘em, Jimmy. I can’t do it without you.”

Jimmy weighed his options. Then he sighed heavily.

“I’ll set up camp,” Jimmy said, allowing the fact that he hated that he was doing this to saturate each word and make them drip.

Soos was put in charge of finding more firewood. With Soos gone, Jimmy pulled Stan closer to his body, arm firmly wrapped around Stan.

His hand brushed Stan’s belt, and Jimmy hissed as it burned him.

“What’s wrong?” Stan asked quickly, tensing.

Jimmy knew Stan’s tells for when he was lying. He genuinely didn’t know why Jimmy had hissed in pain.

“Heh. I thought that belt looked different.”

“The belt? Spitfire gave it to me before we left.”

“Figures. Bet Terror Twin asked him to.”

Jimmy adjusted his hand so that it wouldn’t touch Stan’s belt.

“What’re you talking about?”

“Nothin’, really.”

Silence. Then -

“Thank you for doing this for me.”

“It’s … technically part of the deal,” Jimmy said.

“I - I know, but … it still means a lot to me. I … I like that you’re here. I like that … you’re looking after me again.”

Stan remembered that Jimmy would’ve made him forfeit his soul for his own. But … who wouldn’t do that in Jimmy’s position? Stan couldn’t say that he wouldn’t have.

And Jimmy hadn’t hurt Soos. Or Wendy or Ford or Mabel or Dipper. He was really coming through for Stan.

The deal didn’t mean he couldn’t do those things, it just meant that he’d lose what Stan was offering. In the past, Stan’s offers - Stan himself - had never been enough to counteract Jimmy’s temper. Now … now was different.

“Anything for you, kitten,” Jimmy said, and Stan felt himself blush like he had back then.

He was safe from the world with Jimmy, his family would be safe with Jimmy. It might take some getting used to for the kids and for Ford, but things would get better.

On the other side of town, Dipper’s exhaustion and hunger got the better of him, and he and Mabel wiped out in the middle of the road. Ford and Wendy had to double back for them, but that made it too late for any of them. Mabel pushed the motorbike away from her, then grabbed Dipper.

“Dipper! Dipper!”

He groaned, but seemed unwilling to open his eyes.

Gideon and his prison buddies had them surrounded.

“We’ve got ya now! All’s left is alerting Bill that we’ve got ya - !”

“Gideon, please don’t do that!” Mabel begged, not knowing what else to do as Wendy and Ford tried to decide which prisoner to attack first.

“And why shouldn’t I?” Gideon asked.

“I’ll - I’ll go on another date with you if you don’t turn us in!”

Mabel couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Really?” Gideon said, holding up his hand to keep his buddies from doing anything more.

“Yes, really! Just please! Don’t hurt us or tell Bill!”

“Mabel, you don’t have to do that!” Ford said.

But Mabel remembered Dipper breaking his leg in that bike accident earlier in the summer. She thought to Dipper having a fever. She thought about how they didn’t really have any food left for Dipper in the Shack.

They needed Gideon in order to stop Bill. Getting close to Gideon might be their only way to get out of this alive.

Getting close to Gideon might be her only way to make sure Dipper survived the summer.

“Why, anything for you, Mabel! Boys! Bring them to our crib!”

Mabel “got to” ride with Gideon and Ghost Eyes. She insisted Dipper ride with her. She knew he hadn’t hit his head; he was exhausted, and she let him sleep while leaning against her in the backseat. Ford and Wendy were forcibly restrained in separate cars.

Meanwhile, Jimmy got Stan to tell him more about this twin brother he had but had never mentioned before. Stan explained and complained about how he had never got thanked. Jimmy nodded at appropriate times and supported Stan in his anger at Ford.

“All I wanted was a thank you. I know I did a lot of other screwed up shit, but I still saved his life,” Stan said. “That counts for something, doesn’t it?”

“It sure does. And now you’re out here, risking both our necks, for his sorry ass all over again.”

“Yeah, and he had the nerve to get the kids wrapped up in it! And my employee!” 

“Have I ever told you how cute you are when you’re mad?”

Stan shoved Jimmy a little, but he leaned right back into Jimmy’s touch. The blush and smile told Jimmy Stan liked hearing that.

“Seriously, what did I ever do to land a cutie like you?”

“C’mon, stop it,” Stan protested, but in that joking kind of way.

Soos had already returned with the firewood, but hadn’t brought attention to himself yet and stayed on the edge of their camp in the shadows. Watching.

Soos didn’t like it.


	18. Chapter 18

Finding Ford, Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy was proving to be difficult, but it was starting to be difficult for Stan to be afraid of Weirdmageddon when he had Jimmy and his freakish demonic strength absolutely ripping monsters apart.

“ _Woo-hoo_! Go Jimmy!” Stan shouted, pumping his fist into the air.

Jimmy’s gloves were covered in blood. Soos was pretty sure he’d never eat meat again as he watched Jimmy bite into what was left of the monster.

Ford said the man didn’t even need to eat. Just what was wrong with him?

“Want any, kitten?”

“Ahhhh, only if you cook it.”

Fire spun from Jimmy’s wrist and wrapped itself around Jimmy’s hand and the flesh in his grip. It died away to reveal lightly charred meat.

“Better?”

“Eh, sure. Why not.”

“M-Mr. Pines - !” Soos objected, but his voice wasn’t very loud, and Stan took no heed to it.

“Eck. It could’ve had the decency to taste like chicken or something.”

Jimmy laughed, especially when Stan continued to eat it.

Soos hadn’t been able to keep track of time very well since his watch stopped. But it was unnerving to watch them act like the events in the Shack where Jimmy had smacked Stan right into the wall had never happened.

Calling for Dipper and Mabel was sprinkled with fighting monsters and Jimmy saving the day and the two flirting with each other and Jimmy picking Stan up either for fun or to save his life in one way or another.

It was also like Soos wasn’t there aside from Stan’s occasional questions on how he was doing.

Soos hoped they’d find the kids and Wendy and Ford soon.

Meanwhile, Dipper had woken up to the smell of food. He groaned in despair as he looked around and realized they had been captured by Gideon.

Ford and Wendy were strapped to chairs at the table, and Dipper was dragged into the dining area and was forced into a chair. One of the prisoners made to restrain him as well, but Gideon held a hand up.

“Mabel says let ‘im be,” Gideon said.

“I’m sorry I crashed the bike,” Dipper said, looking at Ford and Wendy.

“It’s not your fault, Dipper,” Wendy said, slumped in the chair in a defeated manner. “You were tired.”

Mabel was sitting next to Gideon at the head of the table they had set up in the middle of the now wrecked used car lot. On the table was a variety of foods that they hadn’t seen since they had ran out of it themselves in the Shack a few days ago. Dipper’s mouth watered at the sight of the bread.

“Eat up, everybody,” Gideon said. “We’re celebrating my peach dumplin coming back to me! And if you’d behave proper, I would let go of your restraints, Mr… I’m sorry, who are you, anyway?”

“Stanford Pines.”

“… No you’re not. Stan Pines has never worn those clothes in his whole li-”

“He’s Grunkle Ford, short of Stanford. Grunkle Stan is actually Stanley and has been pretending to be Grunkle Ford ever since Grunkle Ford got lost in an inter-dimensional portal that has the instructions on how to use it in the journals,” Mabel said.

“Oh. Wait - the journals?”

“Great-Uncle Ford’s the author,” Dipper said, grabbing the bread basket and hugging it to his chest as he started to dig into the food.

Gideon’s eyes widened, and he turned his head to look at Ford. Ford was glaring at him.

“Oh my gosh, why didn’t you say so!? Ghost Eyes, remove his restraints! I hope you understand that I only did that ‘cause you were causin’ such a fuss.”

Ford crossed his arms once he had them free. Wendy did what Dipper was doing and grabbed for some food.

“Dipper, how does he know about the journals?”

“He found number 2 before we did. We ended up with it after he went to prison,” Dipper said.

“Yeah, your journal was how he got his psychic powers with that amulet thingy,” Mabel said.

A twinge of guilt twanged in his heart, but Ford didn’t let it show just yet.

He owed Mabel an apology. And Dipper as well.

“Did you ever read Journal 3?” Ford asked.

“Not really. I had it temporarily, but I hadn’t had a chance to look at it before Dipper got in the way.” Gideon said.

“You were chasing after me and Dipper with a giant robot. That’s hardly getting in your way,” Mabel said.

Ford’s teeth gritted and his hands tightened into fists.

“If you haven’t read Journal 3, then you hadn’t seen my warnings on Bill Cipher. He’s not to be trusted. You have to understand that. He’ll say whatever he wants to get you to do what he wants you to do. He’ll lie about anything and use the truth when convenient. He doesn’t care about you in the slightest, and when you stop being useful, he’ll retaliate in ways you can’t begin to imagine. And I don’t think he’d be easy on you just because you’re a child.”

“What’re you getting at?” Gideon asked, eyebrows furrowed.

“I’m saying that the longer he’s in charge, the more in danger we all are. Perhaps you especially.”

Ford wouldn’t let Mabel’s compromise with Gideon be in vain.

“You’re just saying that because Bill’s your enemy,” Gideon said.

“And have you wondered why? Why I, the very person who wrote about Bill in his journals and … foolishly claimed that he was the best, most trustworthy person I had ever met, am now his enemy?”

Ford could see that he was striking a chord with Gideon, but it must not have been a chord he wanted struck.

“I don’t have to listen to this!” Gideon said, standing up. “You’re trying to trick me!”

“No we’re not, Gideon,” Mabel said, stepping in. “There’s no reason to trick you. Bill is really, really bad news. All he wants to do is hurt people. He’ll probably hurt you, me, Dipper, everybody in town. Do you really want him to do that?”

“Bill and I have a deal. I’d help him and in exchange he’d look after me and make sure my destiny was fulfilled!” Gideon said.

“And what destiny is that?”

“You and I are meant to be together, Mabel. Bill explained it all to me, and it’s why our symbols are next to each other on that weird wheel thing of his.”

“That wheel is the key to destroying Bill, Gideon. You and Mabel are meant to hold hands in order to bring Bill down. That’s what that means,” Ford said. “Not that you’re meant to be together forever, fairy tale ending and all. Bill is manipulating the facts to appeal to you, to keep you from working with us.”

Gideon opened his mouth, probably to continue arguing, but then they heard a familiar sound.

“THERE THEY ARE!”

“Stan?” Mabel, Dipper, and Ford said together.

“Hey, it is Stan! And Soos and … aw c’mon!” Wendy said.

“Oh no, not Jimmy,” Dipper moaned. 

“Jimmy? The biker guy from earlier this summer? The one with the race?” Gideon asked. Mabel nodded, frowning deeply.

“He’s why we ran away and tried to take Bill on by ourselves,” Mabel said, eyes downcast.

Gideon’s expression got serious.

“Boys, get ready for a fight,” Gideon said.


	19. Chapter 19

Stan reached the used car lot, then ran for the twins. “Kids! You’re okay!”

The twins hugged Stan, but both of them were looking over Stan’s shoulders at Jimmy and looking worried.

“Just what in the heck had gotten into you all!? Don’t you know it’s dangerous out here!?” Stan said, letting go of the kids. He directed the first part at the kids and Wendy, but then he turned his head towards Ford. “What the heck were you thinking!?”

Ford frowned deeply.

Jimmy took a few steps closer, and Ford and Wendy pulled the twins back.

“The heck’s gotten into you?” Stan asked.

He looked over his shoulder and saw they were just looking at Jimmy.

Stan looked back at them, then saw who they had been hanging around.

“And what’s Gideon doing here!?”

“We’re tired of the Apocalypse, so we tried getting rid of Bill, but the sci-fi gun didn’t work, so we ran away, and I got Gideon to agree not to turn us into Bill,” Mabel said.

“Great-Uncle Ford has a back-up plan, but we don’t have all the prophecy people yet,” Dipper said.

“But we have most of ‘em. Wendy, Soos, you and Grunkle Ford, me, Dipper, Pacifica,” Mabel said.

“And I think Fiddleford McGucket is the glasses on the wheel, and Gideon is the Pentagram and Wendy says her friend Robbie is the heart.”

“Only problem with that is that we’d have to go save Robbie from being a part of Bill’s chair of human statues,” Wendy said, arms crossed.

“The heck are you all talking about? What prophecy?”

Jimmy snorted.

“Everyone in the Underworld knows prophecies are just things humans make up to make themselves feel better about being completely out of control of their circumstances,” Jimmy said, crossing his arms. “You’re a real idiot if you think a prophecy is going to save you from an inter-dimensional chaos monstrosity.”

“I’m an expert in the paranormal and have 12 PhDs! I know what I’m talking about!”

“I have literally been spending my undead existence surrounded by many of the very beings that laugh about all this prophecy shit, I’d know better than you,” Jimmy said, stepping forward and getting into Ford’s space.

Ford made eye contact and glared back at Jimmy.

“I’ve dealt with BIll much longer than any of you. I know his weaknesses and how to finally get rid of that isosceles monster! And I don’t trust you in the least bit!”

“C’mon, Ford, I know you don’t like him, but he’s not a liar and he is a demonic being. If anyone would know, he would,” Stan interjected. “And right now, it looks like you’ve endangered the kids for no good reason!”

“It was for a good reason! They don’t feel safe in the Shack!”

“The Shack is the safest place in this nightmare! All because of your unicorn spell thing!”

“That doesn’t change the fact that that monster is in there and scares the kids!”

“ _Excuse me_? Jimmy’s not a monster!”

“Eh, I’m a little bit of one,” Jimmy said, a disgusting smirk on his face that made Ford angry. 

“Look, he just got into a bad patch that ended up with him making a deal with the devil, that doesn’t make him a monster!”

Dipper and Mabel were too shocked to say anything. Ford wasn’t.

“ _He hits you in the face and knocks you around until you fall unconscious and he’s supposed to be your boyfriend_! Or ex-boyfriend or whatever the heck you two are now!”

Stan snorted as though what Ford said was actually funny, and it just made Ford angrier.

“Hate to break it to you, Poindexter, but humans would do that too. And just ‘cause I get knocked around a bit doesn’t mean it’s not safe for the kids. You saw the agreement paperwork, you know you and the kids are safe in the Shack.”

Somewhere in the background of their drama, Wendy approached Soos and asked if he was okay. Ford couldn’t pay attention to that right now, though, and neither could Stan.

“But Grunkle Stan, that’s not - !” Mabel started, but Dipper quickly interrupted her, his face silently screaming with terror.

“As true as that is, do you really want to live in a world where Bill Cipher rules? Is that really something you’re gonna be okay with, Grunkle Stan?” Dipper said quickly.

Mabel, however, refused to be silent.

“But it’s not true, Dipper!”

“Mabel!”

“You know it’s not!”

“I have no idea what she’s talking about!” Dipper protested, his body trembling and his eyes trained on Jimmy instead of Stan.

There was murmuring in the background, but Stan couldn’t focus on what was being said.

“Dipper, what’s going on?” Stan asked.

It was clear the boy was terrified, but Stan was having some trouble figuring out why. He followed Dipper’s line of sight, but then immediately looked back at Dipper.

“Nothing! Nothing’s going on! Just trying to fight Bill! That’s all!”

“The children don’t feel safe in the Shack. They’d rather be out here and fighting Bill than staying anywhere with Jimmy, Stan. It’ll have to be up to you to ask why that is, and I genuinely don’t know the details, but -” Ford said.

“Terror twin says nothing’s wrong, so nothing’s wrong,” Jimmy said. “He’s always been a little wound up.”

Stan’s eyebrows rose up, and his eyes widened just enough that it gave Ford the impression something had clicked in his brain.

Stan turned around to look at Jimmy.

“Why can’t Dipper tell me what happened?”

Jimmy was quiet for a moment.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jimmy said.

“ _Don’t you lie to me_. What did you do, and what did you say to keep him quiet?”

There was a long silence, and even Gideon and his prison buddies had stopped their murmuring in the background. The only sound was those of the hell birds and monsters roaming around in the distance.

“I didn’t -” Jimmy started.

“ _Jimmy_.”

Jimmy sighed and chewed at the inside of his cheek.

“I might’ve … lost my temper with the kid when he insisted on finding a way to keep Bill Cipher inside Gravity Falls to keep him from taking over the world.”

“Ex _cuse me_!?”

Jimmy looked far more annoyed and irritated than anything else.

“He wanted to spend more time out in Danger Town when all I - and you for that matter - wanted both our asses back at the Shack! We didn’t even have that damn unicorn hair at the time!”

“You broke your word! You hurt my nephew! Then you lied to me about it! You gave him that fucking wound that then got infected and gave him a fever, didn’t you!?” 

“That infection shit happened ‘cause he went and took on that unicorn!”

“I don’t believe you!”

“Fine! But can you really blame me!? This Weirdmageddon shit is why I was banished and stuck here for punishment, do you really think I’d want to be out in this for any longer than I have to be!? You don’t want to be out here longer than you have to be!”

“I’m not the one with magic powers! And you had to have threatened Dipper into staying quiet about it! All so I wouldn’t know you broke our deal already so you could still take advantage of your benefits!”

“I was just - I was scared, I don’t want to be trapped outside of the Shack with this madness going on!”

“ _What did you tell Dipper you’d do if he told_!?” 

Jimmy hesitated, and there was a bit of a shake to his head as he chose what to say.

“Nothing, really! I wasn’t gonna actually do it, it was just to scare him a little!”

“You tell me right now or I’ll - I’ll - !”

Jimmy somehow managed to be smug enough to snort in derision.

“ _Don’t test me you big jerk_!” Stan shouted.

“He -” Dipper spoke up, and Stan turned his head around to look at him.

All eyes were on Dipper as he finally told the truth about what happened.

“He said - Jimmy said if I told, he’d k-kill you and Mabel and Great-Uncle Ford, and then he gave me the deadline on how long he was gonna wait for me to find a way to contain Bill.” Dipper started talking faster once he got started. Tears were pricking at his eyes, starting with the moment he admitted that Jimmy threatened to kill them. “Then the unicorn crossed our path and I didn’t have time anymore and - and I - ! I didn’t want to kill it, but she wouldn’t hand the hair over, and I was angry and scared and before I knew it I threw a rock and it hit it in the head and then it just - just keeled over and it was dead and I didn’t do it on purpose, I just didn’t want - I wanted you all to live - !”

Dipper started hyperventilating, the stress of the admission getting to him. Then he felt his stomach get upset from the stress, and he pressed his arms against his tummy.

Everyone stared at Dipper, and Mabel placed her hand on Dipper’s back, knowing a hug right now would make him probably actually vomit.

Fury was in Stan’s eyes as he turned his head back around to glare at Jimmy.

“That’s _it_! That’s the last _fucking_ straw!”

Stan actually took steps towards Jimmy, and Ford just barely stopped himself from calling Stan’s name, from begging him not to get any closer to Jimmy.

“You’ve got two options, Jimmy! Either get the _hell out of my life_ and never bother my family ever again, no matter how long you’re stuck in this _stupid hick town_ , or you get your fucking act together and prove that you really _do_ love me and learn to give a shit about my family and their safety and feelings and help my dumb brother fight the stupid triangle monster! One or the other! And I want the answer now!”

Jimmy’s response was to grab Stan’s jacket front and pull him up to his face, Stan’s feet dangling off the ground just enough for it to be unsettling.

“Why would _anyone_ love you enough to risk their fucking neck against a _regenerative, inter-dimensional, all-powerful nightmare_? You weren’t even worth _prison time_ , let alone the endless torture that would result from that! You and your family are gonna die without me, and honestly? Good fucking riddance with your _weak, pathetic, good-for-nothing_ ass!”

Jimmy then threw Stan away from him, and Stan fell right on his ass. Stan hissed in pain as it flared up in his lower back.

“Grunkle Stan!”

Mabel and Dipper hurried to Stan’s side. Soos and Wendy quickly went to Stan as well.

“Are you okay, Mr. Pines?” Soos said.

“Is your back all right? I’m not certified yet, but I’ve been learning how to realign body parts! I probably wouldn’t make it worse.” Wendy said.

Stan didn’t say anything. He was too busy watching Jimmy walk away.

He was twenty-one years old and sitting in his first prison. He kept thinking Jimmy would come bail him out. That Jimmy would come back for him. Sure, they had fought, and Stan’s wrist was still healing from being broken and his teeth would never be the same, but Jimmy loved him. He said he did. Jimmy wasn’t a liar like Stan was. No, Jimmy only hurt him when Stan did something wrong. If Jimmy was still mad and didn’t come back, he deserved this. He deserved….

“Grunkle Stan … ?” Mabel said, her voice confused and scared.

“Grunkle Stan, it’s gonna be okay. We - we don’t need him. He was lying, I promise. P-please don’t cry. Not over him,” Dipper said.

Stan couldn’t process what they were saying, even though he heard them just fine. He couldn’t stop the repetition of the words from his memories. No one else would ever love him. No one else would ever even try to believe he was worth anything, worth any love at all. 

Stan couldn’t remember actually starting to sob. He couldn’t remember grabbing hold of the kids and holding them tightly. He just knew that all of a sudden, he was crying and shaking and not letting the kids go and they were holding him just as tightly.

Ford had been stuck in one place, watching, until Stan started to cry.

Ford remembered the last time he had listened to Stan crying that hard. They had been twelve years old, like Dipper and Mabel were now, and Stan wouldn’t tell him what was wrong for the longest time. When Ford found out that whatever it had been, it had been Crampelter’s fault, Ford had hunted that jerk down and gave him what Ford hoped was a taste of his own medicine. Ma had been upset that he had gotten beat up, but Ford didn’t care. Crampelter had had plenty of bruises and bite marks of his own that day.

Ford started running.

“HEY, JIMMY!”

Jimmy was dense enough to actually turn around.

All the occupation demon saw was a unicorn-leathered fist aiming for his nose.


	20. Chapter 20

The contact of the unicorn leather with his skin made Jimmy yell in pain, and he and Ford tumbled to the ground, Ford allowing his fist to lead him instead of his feet.

Ford straddled Jimmy, then pulled his other fist back and punched him again, right in the face. Jimmy threw his hands out and fought to push Ford off, but with the power of elbows and Ford pushing his hands past Jimmy’s and wrapping his gloved fingers around Jimmy’s neck, Ford kept his position.

Strangling was never Ford’s style, but the smell of singing flesh and the sound of Jimmy gargling in pain made him consider it for a moment.

It took a moment longer than Ford’s rational side of his brain was comfortable with, but he moved his hands from the throat, leaving on in place just enough to keep a burning sensation on Jimmy’s exposed collar bone. He pulled his other hand back and begun to punch Jimmy repeatedly in the face.

He watched as Jimmy regenerated the skin that he had damaged with each punch, making it look as though Ford wasn’t doing as much damage as he was.

But the unicorn leather was leaving bruises and blood, even as the skin healed over. It was something.

“Stan is not weak! He’s not pathetic!”

Ford thought back to when they were children and this kind of activity had been exhausting for Ford. He had hated physical exertion. He had hated boxing.

He was glad he had taken it.

“Stan defended me every day of our childhood!”

Each fact was repeatedly punctuated with a punch.

“He went to prison in three different countries and is still here!”

Dimension hopping had taught him that prison everywhere was terrible. As much as Ford didn’t want to think about it, he was pretty sure Stan’s implication that he had been raped had happened in prison.

“He re-built an inter-dimensional portal with only a third of the instructions while only having a high school education! No matter how long I was gone or how much I pretended not to care, he never gave up on me!”

His arm was getting tired, so he switched. Jimmy was struggling to get a hold on Ford in an attempt to flip them over and change the situation to Jimmy’s benefit, but so far he was failing.

“He brought home three gold medals from boxing tournaments! He survived being homeless for ten years! He made sure I had a house to come back to! He gave me a reason to be proud of my birth defect! He was the first person to ever make me feel like I wasn’t a freak!”

Punching started to feel repetitive, but he didn’t want to stop, and it wasn’t like he had unicorn leather boots. The unicorn hide was the only reason this was hurting the man at all, anyway. Maybe a combo of backhanding and slapping him would be effective?

“Ford,” was said faintly somewhere behind him.

“Stan Pines is a better man than you’ll ever be! You never deserved him, and he _sure as hell deserves better than you_!” 

Ford pulled his hand back to hit Jimmy again, but something pulled on his arm.

Ford turned his head and looked to see who it was.

Stanley stood there, tears still in his eyes, gripping onto his coat sleeve.

“Stop it, Ford,” Stan said, far too softly.

Ford could only remember him speaking that softly when they were children. Never as adults. And it was only ever when their father had yelled at them or given them a particularly harsh punishment.

“Just leave ‘im alone.”

The fight in Ford died suddenly as he saw the look on Stan’s face.

Jimmy then pushed Ford off him and got to his feet, eyes glowing red and smoking.

Jimmy lunged for the twins, but he suddenly found rope and chains being lassoed over him.

“What!?” Jimmy shouted, his face and throat slow to regenerate the skin that Ford’s gloves had burned off.

Ghost Eyes and the other prisoners had stepped in and were reeling Jimmy in.

“I think we know exactly who’d like to see you!” Gideon said. “Ghost Eyes, deliver him to Bill. I think they’d find a way to make sure he knows how to party.”

Jimmy was then dragged again, kicking and screaming.

Ford got back to his feet and looked at Stanley. Somehow his twin looked older than he was.

“Stanley?”

He said something, and Ford couldn’t really hear it.

“Come again?”

“Don’t ever do that again,” Stan said, just as softly as before.

“Don’t … ? Don’t what, protect you? Stanley, I meant every word. You’re not weak, you’re not pathetic, you’re not good-for-nothing. You didn’t deserve any of what he did to you.”

“Uh, Stanford? Er, Stanley? I mean - both of you,” Gideon spoke up. Ford and Stan turned their heads to look at him. “We should really get going if we’re gonna take on Bill. Regrouping at the Shack and getting who we need for the prophecy before rescuing Robbie from Bill’s human statue throne should be of top priority right now. Bill will only be entertained by that … _unpleasant_ man for a little while.” 

Ford sighed. The child was right. And this meant that Gideon was willing to help them, though he couldn’t be sure why the child had changed his mind.

Gideon had the prison buddies who had stuck around drive all of them back to the Shack, with Spitfire’s and Dipper’s bikes strapped to the back of two of the cars. Gideon sat in the front seat with Dipper and Mabel in the back in their car.

“Mabel?” Gideon said.

“Yes, Gideon?” Mabel sighed.

“You, um… . You don’t have to go on a date with me if you don’t want to.”

Both twins’ eyes widened.

“Repeat that?” Dipper asked.

“Mabel doesn’t have to go on a date with me to get me to work with you guys. I mean, I’d love it if she did want to go on a date with me, but … I’m not making it a requirement.”

The twins looked at each other.

“Wow, thanks, Gideon,” Mabel said. “Who knew there really was some good in you?”

“Well, after … earlier, I’ve … decided I don’t want to be anything like that Jimmy brute.”

“Me neither,” Dipper said. “Though the biker look is growing on me.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are references to self-harm in this chapter.

They had done it. Bill was gone. Regardless of any reservations there would have been to holding hands for the circle before the blow-up with Jimmy, Stan had held Ford’s hand with no complaints or requirements. But Ford couldn’t stop keeping an eye on Stan’s face. He was so tired. He hadn’t said a truly sarcastic comment with biting cynicism since Gideon had joined their group. Everything he said was in a strange monotone that Ford wasn’t used to, and it was scaring him.

Stan took his hands back from Soos and Ford once Bill was defeated, then turned around and started heading back to the Shack. Well, what was left of it.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Ford heard Gideon ask.

“Yeah. He sometimes gets like that, though … usually we don’t know the reason,” Mabel said.

Dipper, on the other hand, let go of Wendy’s and Robbie’s hands and jogged after Stan. He slowed down when he reached the man, then reached out to grab Stan’s hand. Stan took it and squeezed, and Dipper squeezed it back.

Mabel hurried on after them, and Ford followed, though at a slower pace. Mabel grabbed Stan’s other hand, and Stan did the same with hers. But aside from that, he didn’t really acknowledge that either twin was there.

Once they reached the Shack, Stan let go of their hands and stepped over the ruins of what was left of the Shack, went straight to his bedroom, then closed the door behind him.

Dipper held his arm in an attempt to comfort himself, and Mabel chewed at her bottom lip.

“What should we do?” Dipper asked.

“What we always do? Give him some space?” Mabel suggested, but she lacked any confidence in the suggestion.

Ford caught up with them, but held off on suggesting anything himself for a moment.

“When was the last time he got his prescription filled?” Dipper asked.

“Uh….”

“Prescription?” Ford asked.

“Yeah, the, uh, he calls them happy pills,” Mabel said.

“The name on the bottle says they’re anti-depressants,” Dipper said.

“Oh.”

There was a lot about Stan Ford didn’t know.

But it was time that he changed that. And that he changed what Stan knew about Ford.

“Why don’t you two go see if he needs a refill on that, and I’ll go check on him. I … don’t think leaving him alone is the best course of action right now.”

Ford had seen what had happened to Fiddleford when he had left him alone. Ford had seen many things happen to many different kinds of creatures when they were left alone in their sadness.

Somehow, the image of his and Stan’s mother taking one of her cigarette butts and burning herself with it stuck out the most in his mind, even after everything he had been through. Even though it had been her who had made sure he learned to leave her alone in the first place.

Stan had not locked the door, so Ford slipped inside with no trouble.

Stan sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the wall and hugging himself.

“Go away, Ford,” Stan said, his voice still a ghost of itself.

“No,” Ford said. “You’re scaring me like … like how Ma would scare us sometimes. I’m not leaving.”

Stan glanced over at him, then sighed heavily and looked back at the wall. His shoulders sagged, and Ford took that as an … not an invite, but a sign that Stan wouldn’t fight him. Ford moved to sit next to Stan.

“Haven’t cleaned the sheets yet,” Stan warned.

Ford hesitated, feet still on the carpet and no body parts touching the bed yet.

“Should … that matter?”

Stan looked at Ford again, and Ford’s mouth twisted a bit in distress.

As … much as he didn’t want to touch anything that any of Jimmy’s … fluids had touched, Ford took a deep breath and sat on the bed. He told himself it was his imagination as part of his brain swore it could feel the germs crawling up his body.

Sometimes Ford hated being a sex-repulsed asexual. Sure, he could look at a body and experience arousal from that, but literally everything about actually interacting with sexual things grossed him out. But he could do this. For Stanley.

Ford took another breath.

“I’m not going to pretend I understand your relationship with Jimmy. I don’t, and I don’t think I’ll ever.”

Stan showed no signs of acknowledgement, but Ford didn’t need him to. Not yet.

“But I do know what it’s like to be in an abusive relationship. While I don’t really know what to call what we had, Bill and I were … it hadn’t been completely platonic, at least on my end. I don’t actually think Bill Cipher is capable of love of any kind, but I know he enjoyed having me around so he could torment me and use me to create the portal, and I have no doubts that out of everyone in the dimensions he had visited, I was his, quote-on-quote, ‘favorite.’ And that relationship with him almost destroyed me. It made me distrust even more things and people than I had distrusted before him, and it made me completely lose sight of everything that was not the portal. Even though I did not trust him anymore, he still controlled my life and thoughts, even when he wasn’t literally in my head anymore. I … I understand that it’s hard to move on from that. I understand that it’s … going to take a long time to get over Jimmy. But you need to understand that he treated you in a way you did not deserve and that he never really cared about you. If he had cared, he’d never -”

“Yes, he did,” Stan said softly. 

“Stanley -”

“If he didn’t care, why have me around at all? He could’ve gotten anything and everything I gave him from someone else, so he’d have to care to have a reason to put up with me,” Stan said.

“He’d have fought Bill if he loved you,” Ford said firmly. “He wouldn’t have hit you if he loved you.”

“Nah. Fighting Bill would’ve required caring about me more than he cared about himself, and that’s unreasonable to expect.”

“No it’s not unreasonable. And no it wouldn’t have. All that would’ve been required would have been giving a shit about what happened to you. Prime example, Mabel and Dipper said Gideon was an absolute terror who stalked Mabel and he was working with Bill. Bill had him convinced that Mabel was destined to be his and a bunch of other junk, but when it came right down to it, he cared more about Mabel and her wants in the face of danger and sided with us. And Mabel’s not convinced he cares more about her than himself. Dipper and I aren’t convinced either, but he went against his partner-in-crime to help us. Because he does care if she gets hurt.”

Stan raised an eyebrow.

“He did?”

“Yes. He’s not gonna be invited over for play dates anytime soon, but he’s already proved himself to be a better man than Jimmy is, just by doing that for Mabel. Heck, he’s proven himself to be stronger than me just by going up against Bill without needing any incentive other than ‘he is putting someone I care about in danger.’”

Now that he was saying this out loud, Ford was starting to believe that Gideon, if guided in the right direction, could grow up into quite the respectable adult.

Stan mulled the information over a bit.

“Jimmy fought other monsters while we were looking for you. And back when we were first together, I honestly couldn’t tell ya how many creeps he had beaten up for me when I couldn’t get myself out of a jam. It wasn’t … it wasn’t like he didn’t protect me. Bill was just….”

“Pacifica, Gideon, Grenda, Candy, Dipper and Mabel are twelve and stood up to Bill. Wendy and Robbie are just fifteen, and Soos hasn’t been an adult for that long. If all of those young people could stand up to Bill, then Jimmy could have too. But even if he had, he still hit you, and that in and of itself proves he doesn’t care.”

“That’s not true,” Stan said. “He loved me in his own way.”

The phrase hit Ford in a weird place. He didn’t like how it felt.

It was Ford’s turn to be quiet while Stan talked.

“The two years I was with him were the only point in those two years I wasn’t living in my car or in prison until you had sent that postcard. I never went a day hungry, and I didn’t have to worry about cops or thugs while I slept. It was warm every night. I - I was a little younger than Soos is now. Had just turned twenty-one when it ended. He just … never came back for me after I ended up taking the fall for this thing us and the gang did. He had still been pretty mad over a fight we had. Though the prison doctor was the main reason the wrist healed up properly at all, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. Out of all the prisons I’ve been to, that first one actually wasn’t that bad at all…. I was always doing shit that pissed him off. It was my own damn fault, and sometimes I made him mad on purpose. ‘Cause sometimes - sometimes there’d be this equilibrium, and I’d miss the way he’d be extra nice to me, but he only ever did that when he was trying to apologize…. So I’d rile him into knocking me around so he’d do something special later. ‘Cause I was stupid and selfish and cared more about myself and what I could get, and then I lost it all….”

“That doesn’t sound like you cared more about yourself,” Ford said. “What about the times you didn’t do it on purpose? You said he would’ve broken down the door when he first showed up….”

Stan laughed, voice hollow.

“Yeah…. Man, he scared the shit out of me when he did that the first time. I had been hiding in the bathroom when he had come home angry over something. Don’t really know what it had been. Never asked…. But he’d feel bad after. He’d apologize most of the time. And, again, he’d be extra nice to me for a while after.”

Ford had this horrible image in his mind of Stan cowering in a bathroom and begging Jimmy to not hurt him, and it made his stomach churn and bubble in displeasure. 

“And he’d compliment me sometimes completely out of the blue when he was in a good mood. He liked how I cooked and would remind me how he thought I was cute. I had already gained quite a bit of weight I didn’t like having in the tummy area when we met, so that really … .”

Stan sighed.

“I just … I had found someone who seemed impressed with all the tiniest things that Pa never batted an eye at, and it had seemed like all I had to give in exchange for that was a few broken bones and bruises, and … I really hadn’t cared. It … it was the main reason I never fought back, I guess….”

Ford’s eyes widened at the mention of their father. He swallowed hard.

“That … probably is also why I fell for Bill so easily. He said I was special, that he had chosen me to inspire because of my intellect…. Everything that I had wanted to hear from Pa….”

“… he had said, without ever being asked,” Stan finished, and he was actually smiling at Ford as Ford looked back at him, astonished.

Ford couldn’t believe that they both had been so fucked over by the issues Filbrick had seated them with.

“But in the end, it was just a way to manipulate us. To get us to do what they wanted,” Ford said.

“I can see the triangle doing it that way, but I don’t think Jimmy is that smart,” Stan said. “I think that’s just how he worked.”

“Even so, he’d have needed to find someone who would respond in the way he wanted.”

Stan shrugged.

“It’s possible we have bigger target signs on us than we thought,” Ford continued. “That something about our behavior just screams ‘Daddy didn’t show me enough affection’ or something. So that predators can pick up on it, even if they don’t consciously notice it, and know ‘hey, that one. That one I can tear to pieces.’”

Stan snorted.

“You sound like one of those documentary shows on Animal Planet.”

“On … what?”

“TV channel.”

“Ah. Well, anyway…. You know Dad was wrong about you, right? And that Jimmy’s wrong about you, too? You’re not good-for-nothing or a burden. I … I should have seen that years ago, should’ve done something to help you so much sooner. Maybe … Maybe you never would’ve met Jimmy if I had been a better brother.”

“Eh, depends if we somehow ended up in Alabama. But Dad was wrong about you too. You’re not a freak, and you have more value than in just your brain. And maybe if I had been a better brother, you’d’ve known that before the Triangle Guy and maybe we wouldn’t have fought and you wouldn’t have gotten lost in the portal.”

Ford smiled a little.

“Bill can be pretty persuasive. I bet our fight wouldn’t have happened, but there’s no way we can guarantee there wouldn’t’ve been a different kind of accident.”

Stan smiled a bit too.

“While there’s nothing that can be changed about any of this, we have each other now, and I’m never letting any creep hurt you ever again,” Ford said.

“Same goes for you, dumbass,” Stan said.

Stan held up his hand.

“High-six?”

“High-six.”

Ford lifted his hand and tapped it against Stan’s.

Ford then immediately got up off the bed and shrugged his coat off.

“If you’ll take the sheets off, I’ll toss all of this in the washer, assuming it still works. If not, I’ll rebuild it. Because ewwwwwww, sex germs!”

Stan burst out laughing at that.

“Oh my god, you’re still a nerd virgin!”

“It has nothing to do with virginity! But yes, actually, I am. And proud of it!”

Stan laughed, and Ford knew that it wasn’t at him. And even if it was, at that point, Ford wouldn’t care.

Stan was actually laughing. Truly laughing.

Stan was going to be okay.


End file.
